How to Get More Quality Sleep to Make You a Stronger, Better Runner

If you are one of the many, many people who has fallen under the spell that the sport of running casts, then you will no doubt want to progress at some point; more likely sooner rather than later.

You can’t just go and burst through the hallowed sub-four-minute barrier, and you might need to go back to basics before making any major progressions, but there are also other considerations you need to have in mind too.

Once you have been bitten by the running bug, you may well notice that your training schedule consumes most of your free time. Then you have to find room to eat, sleep properly, oh and work as well, no doubt. Pretty packed all of a sudden, right?

Don’t let the vision of such a hectic lifestyle put you off though, because it can be done, and is done by many people, every day, so you can do it just as successfully as them.

A defining factor in moving from an alright runner to a good one (and further, in fact) is something we touched on earlier; sleeping. Your rest and recovery periods can be pivotal towards you reaching your training goals. we’ll go on to explain in more detail just what the importance of sleep has when it comes to optimizing your running training.

Why does sleep play such an important part in an effective training plan?

Training plans thought out by anyone who has taken the time to educate themselves a little will always include sleep. Essentially, it assists in you being able to capitalize on the stack of hours you’ve dedicated to pounding the pavement in all weather conditions year-round. Remaining in peak physical and mental condition relies heavily on the ability to get regular, sound sleep.

Lots of people, and you may be one of them yourself, originally get into running as a way of losing a bit of weight or to look good in your clothes. However, running has the ability to be much more than a sport, it’s ‘moreish’, so staying on top of your sleep habits are paramount or you will find your training is detrimentally affected.

What Happens if You Don’t Get Enough Sleep?

Don’t get your sleep patterns and volumes right and you’ll notice that your appetite will be disturbed in terms of the signals being sent out to your hormones that let you know you’re peckish. Essentially, if you don’t get enough sleep, you are much more likely to run into pangs, leading to you wanting to eat more. Pair this with a person who is wanting to shed some pounds and you’ve got yourself a bad combination.

Flip the coin though and get decent levels of sleep and you’ve teed yourself up for such a simplistic way of removing those unnecessary hunger signals; this will enrich your ability to stick to a healthy diet. Something to remember, if you are an aspiring runner, is that a solid night’s sleep paired with sensible amounts of exercise, will intensify your chances of smashing your targets, whatever they may be.

Steering clear from pesky sleep deprivation is the way to go or it will begin to throw a spanner in the works! Lose sleep and it will weaken your body’s capacity to store essential carbohydrates. You might think this is what you want, but for endurance sports like running, this is definitely a bad thing.

A little more on the benefits of sleep

During the deeper stages of sleep, your human growth hormones (HGH) release and begin to take effect. HGH helps to repair muscles, transforms fat into much-needed fuel, and will also help to strengthen your bones too.

Remove your quality sleep though and reduced HGH levels will kick in. the upshot here is that this will have a significant impression on recovery times. Furthermore, sleep deficiency may also raise cortisol levels and cortisol is a stress-related hormone. This means that too much of this hormone in your body will slow down your recovery time.

The main thing here is to focus on getting enough sleep in your approach to training and make it very high on the list. But, we do have one last tip to try… A key to working optimal sleep into your life for many people is to go to bed and let the alarm have a few days off from waking you up.

Ideally sample this when you have some free time, in case you oversleep, but perhaps go to sleep a little earlier and see what positive results come from this. Typically, those who try this will get the recommended six to nine hours of sleep each night. Try it and see what works for you.