Sleep tips to work on your muscle growth overnight
Without the right diet, adequate sleep and a good training plan it can be hard to build new muscle. A high protein diet provides the necessary amino acids to build muscle mass.
Sleep plays an important part when looking at your muscle growth and so here are some tips!
- Avoid synthetic stimulants. Stimulants place stress on the adrenal glands and over time you will require higher doses of these stimulants to still ‘feel’ its effects and as a result your adrenal glands will become fatigued and you will find it harder to switch off. Caffeine for example takes around 5-6 hours to wear off and so past 4pm it is not usually recommended to ingest caffeine.
- Try to avoid mentally stimulating tasks an hour before you plan on going to bed, such as an exciting movie. Instead try reading a book, having a bath or listening to slow music. All of these options help prepare your brain for sleep.
- Night Time Nibbling. Eating before bed is good practice when trying to build muscle. It is best to pick a slow digesting protein such as milk, cottage cheese, nut butter or a protein powder.
- Make it dark. As discussed below consider turning everything off. Blue light from phones can affect our brain and upset our quality of sleep. The best sleep can be obtained when a room is entirely blacked out, so think about investing in some heavy duty curtains!
- Turn everything off. This one works with the principle of unwinding. If you’re on your phone you may be checking social media, work emails, playing games… all of these will wake the brain up! Avoid this by turning your device off or hiding it somewhere away.
