Recovery; your missing element for success?
This is a guest post.
Many of us are so caught up in the belief that just doing something automatically equates to achievement that we lose touch with the benefits and subtleties of not-doing.
What I’m referring to is getting better results from your efforts (and increasing the quality of that effort) by putting more focus into what you’re not doing; taking advantage of your natural system for optimization.
Let me explain,
Ever notice what happens when you go camping where there are no lights? As soon as the sun goes down you start getting sleepy, even if it is hours before you usually go to bed!
This is a biological rhythm programmed into our bodies to start the repair cycle that will attempt to heal the new, or old, injuries to our bodies and minds and replenish the energy we’ve expended during the day.
Once the sunlight fades over the horizon, cortisol levels (the wake hormone) reach their lowest point and melatonin (the sleep hormone) is released into the blood stream. The systems in our bodies that use energy and keep us awake are down-regulated to their lowest point, while the systems that repair and regenerate our bodies are up-regulated.
The catch is that we need to be asleep in order to fully benefit from this repair cycle.
(And our modern existence of 24 hour lights and immediate access don’t help matters.)
A quick explanation of brain wave function might be useful here.
There are 4 major brain wave categories:
1. Beta is normal waking consciousness – such as how you should be feeling now.
2. Alpha is clear, peaceful consciousness – such as during relaxation or meditation.
3. Theta is deep reflective consciousness – such as how you feel when you’re dropping off to sleep, or sleeping lightly.
4. Delta is unconsciousness – the deepest sleep you fall in to where you’re “dead to the world” and where most tissue repair tends to occur. You would, under normal circumstances, drop into delta sleep 4 or 5 times in the first 4-5 hours of sleep between ten p.m. and two to three a.m.
The normal systems of your body include two repair cycles. The first is the physical repair cycle which begins at approximately 10:00 pm and continues until about 2:00 am. Then the psychogenic repair cycle begins and ends around 6:00 am.
These start and stop times are general proximities. You may need to fine tune the exact timing to fit your individual needs and schedule, but two things are clear:
1. If you are sleeping during the hours other than those consistent with your natural repair cycles, you may not be revitalizing yourself. Anyone who has worked a graveyard shift knows about this.
2. If you’re staying awake until midnight staring at the computer screen, you’re body will not have the time to replace the energy expended during the day or repair your cellular wear and tear.
Not getting in enough delta wave sleep is like a repetitive strain injury to your hormonal system.
Take Action Today
If you want more available energy to use each day of your life and stay as healthy as possible, then you need to first let your body repair and regenerate!
5 Tips
1. Go to bed at the same time each evening.
2. Prepare for sleep an hour earlier by dimming the lights and avoiding flashing screens; computer, TV.
3. Don’t confuse being tired with being hungry; if you feel hungry late at night, go to bed!
4. Keep your bedroom cool and dark
5. Only use your bedroom for sleep (and maybe one other use, but no tv or computer use!)
Establish this routine and find out just how much more energy you’ll have to do the things you love.
Written by Patrick Welch
Patrick Welch is the founder of AllProactive, a coaching service that features a holistic approach to nutrition, exercise and stress control. www.allproactive.com
Photo by apesara
2 Responses to “Recovery; your missing element for success?”
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Hey Patrick,
Thanks for this guest post and for the great tips!
-Andrew
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