I always reinforce with my athletes that recovery is key. You can’t over train, you can only under-recover. Sleeping is a big part of that recovery. You need to sleep at least 8 hours a night, especially, if you’re training hard. Training hard can cause inflammation, and will also cause cell damage as you destroy old weaker muscles and replace them with stronger muscles. This inflammation and cell damage can negatively impact your ability to fall asleep, and stay asleep. Rather than take sleep aids or ibuprofen (or the like), turn to kiwis or tart cherries. Milk has not been shown scientifically to aid in sleeping.
Eating two kiwis one hour before bed has been found to help in falling asleep faster and staying asleep longer. Additionally, drinking 1 cup of tart cherry juice in the morning and at night will help avoid insomnia and reduce waking up in the middle of the night. It’s unclear in the studies how eating kiwis or drinking juice works, and its impact on sleep, but there are some hypotheses. Cherries and kiwis have antioxidants that protect against cell damages and inflation. Inflammation and cell damages (the inevitable results of working out) have been found to negatively impact sleep in adults. Also, the melatonin in cherries and the serotonin in kiwis may also improve sleep. Also, kiwis are also very rich in folate which helps synthesize brain chemicals involved with sleep. Deficiencies in folate have been linked to insomnia and restless leg syndrome.
Even if the findings in the studies are lacking conclusive determinations, there is no harm in giving it a try and seeing how kiwis and cherries work for you. In order to make true gains at the gym, you need your sleep. If you want to minimize your gains, then go ahead and get less than 8 hours sleep.
