The obvious answer to this question is yes, of course sleep is important. How much is really needed? How much do you actually get vs what is needed? That’s normally where we’re hurting for the “correct” answer. Ideally we should get between 7-9 hours of sleep. I know I know, that’s 30% of your day, but your body needs it! Realistically however, most of us get about 5-7 hours. Shame. Tsk tsk.

Living in such an active and nightlife-centric city as New York, it can often be very difficult getting my required number of hours of sleep. The other issue that factors in here: working out. Due to the fact that I love being in the gym, being fit and constantly improving my health, I actually need to be getting 8-9 hours! Shame on me because that rarely, if ever, happens (other than the weekend when I take some liberties and sleep for about 10 hours!).

Why do I, and you too (even working out 3-4 days per week you still need to get at least 8 hours of sleep) need this exorbitant amount of sleep? When we lift weights and do any form of cardio, we are exhausting your muscles. In the case of lifting weights specifically, we are actually tearing our muscles. No, this isn’t causing damage, but this tearing of the muscle fibers and allowing them time to heal are what make the muscles grow. Sleep (and protein, but that will be another blog) heal the muscles. During sleep, we allow time for the fibers to reattach and to grow larger – compensating for the tearing that was caused during the work out.

So, for those hard-lifters and gym-lovers out there such as myself, take my advice (and I’ll start taking my own!) and get some sleep! You can save that extra TV show for the weekend, your TiVO/DVR isn’t going anywhere.