Are you looking to improve your gains? There are so many people out there who focus on their workouts, nutrition, and supplementation. Yet, they completely negate the fact that you need proper rest in order to recover properly and promote gains in lean muscle mass. What you do outside of the gym is actually more important than what you do IN the gym. To help illustrate that point, this article will break down five ways to get a better night’s sleep so you can improve your gains.
Get Your Nighttime Schedule Set
Think of your body as your DVR. You set your DVR to record your favorite show, and it knows when to start taping the show and when to end without you lifting a finger. Your body is the same as its sleep cycles. You want to keep things consistent with your sleep so that your body isn’t thrown off.
The best way to keep your sleep consistent is to form a nighttime habit or ritual. What you want is this schedule to take place like clockwork. So, if you know you need to be asleep by 11pm, at 10pm, you need to be getting things done so you can head to bed and get your quality sleep in to improve your gains.
What this could look like is at 10pm, you start changing into whatever you wear to bed. Then you brush your teeth. Next, you get your clothing out and ready for the next morning. 10:30pm rolls around, and you’re plugging your phone in to charge and then sliding into bed. By 11pm, you’re out like a light, dreaming of all those gains.
Stay Anabolic While You Sleep
If you want to improve your gains, you want to stay anabolic while you sleep. How do you accomplish this? Through strategic supplementation. There are a few supplements you should consider taking before bed.
The first supplement is casein protein. Casein protein is a slow-digesting anti-catabolic protein source. Due to the slow digestion process, you are provided with a sustained release of amino acids into your system, making it the ultimate nighttime protein powder. If you are looking for a high-quality and delicious casein protein powder, check out NutraBio Micellar Casein.
Second on the list of nighttime supplements to help improve your gains is ZMA. ZMA is made up of zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B6. Together, these ingredients help you recover faster, which can lead to adding the quality lean muscle mass you’ve been looking for (all while you sleep). In addition, ZMA can help promote restful sleep – precisely what you’re looking for to help achieve your seven full hours of quality sleep.
That said, not just any ZMA supplement will do, though. You should look for high-quality ingredients, such as what NutraBio ZMA utilizes in its formula. NutraBio uses a patented source of ZMA that can help increase free testosterone levels and total testosterone – helping to maximize your lean muscle tissue growth.
Combining casein with ZMA is the ultimate nighttime stack to help you get the quality sleep you need to help improve recovery and improve your gains.
Turn Off Your Devices
There’s nothing worthwhile or life-changing going on in your social media feed at 2am. Turn your devices off or at least silence them. If someone needs you in the case of an emergency, they will call you. All text messages, emails, and social media posts can wait until the morning – it’s not like you’d be able to put out any fires at work at that time of night anyway since everyone is asleep.
Then you have blue light. Not only is the blue light emitted from your devices enough to cause you to stay away instead of turning off your brain and helping you sleep, but all of those dings, rings, and buzzes coming from your phone or other devices is enough to cause you to stay awake or are loud enough to pull you out of a deep sleep.
Ensure You Are Getting a Minimum of 7 Hours of Sleep Each Night
One of the most important strategies to help improve your gains is to ensure you are getting adequate sleep. SleepFoundation.org published content that showed adults need a minimum of seven hours of sleep each night. Additionally, Sleep.org explains that when we sleep, our body produces human growth hormone (HGH), which supports lean muscle tissue repair and the building of muscle fibers.
While getting seven hours that may be easier said than done since people are burning the midnight oil getting things done, it’s 100% necessary if you want to improve your gains and overall physique.
Let’s use the example if you need to get up at 6am every morning to get to work or school, which means you would need to be in bed and asleep by 11pm at the latest. That doesn’t mean hop in bed at 11pm and scroll through social media until 11:30pm before finally shutting it down.
You need to be asleep by 11pm in the example provided. That means you may need to start getting ready for bed at 10pm or 10:30pm so that you are asleep by 11pm.
Implement Strategies to Help You Fall Asleep
Are you one of those people who can’t seem to fall asleep easily, you’re not alone. The good news is that there are several strategies you can implement to help you slip into a deep sleep.
- Make sure your room is dark: If there are lights on in your room, you will want to turn them off. If there is light coming into your room from outside, consider investing in some “blackout blinds” or heavy curtains that can help keep the light out.
- Make sure your room is quiet: Any noises you hear while trying to sleep can cause a disturbance in your sleep. And if you want to improve your gains, you want to not only fall asleep quickly but also stay asleep. If you have noisy neighbors or can hear the traffic outside your house, consider putting in a pair of earplugs or picking up a sound machine that can play white noise and help block out any external noises so you can sleep.
- Make sure your room is cool: Your body loves cool temperatures when it’s time to sleep. The decrease in body temperature helps your body relax and slowly ease into a deep sleep. If your room is hot, consider opening a window, turning on a fan, wearing less clothing to sleep, or turning down the thermostat in your home.
