How Sleep Impacts Muscle Recovery and Injury Prevention?

Learn more about the importance of sleep and injury recovery

After watching a big world sporting event, lots of people are inspired to take up sports or to get fit. So they lace up their runners, hit the gym, hire a trainer, join a team, and go hard. But one thing that people often forget about when it comes to getting strong and fit is how important rest is for muscle recovery and injury prevention.

For seasoned athletes and amateurs alike, preventing injuries and giving the muscles time to rebuild are key to staying in shape and achieving top performance.

The Importance of Sleep During Injury Recovery

1. Sleep Gives The Body A Chance To Fully Power Down

Sleep gives the body a chance to fully power down so that natural healing processes can take over. The more sleep you get, the more time your body has to secrete important growth hormones, which repair and strengthen muscles, tendons, and ligaments.

2. Sleep is Extremely Important For Injury Prevention

Sleep is also extremely important for injury prevention because proper rest has positive effects on mental response and sharpness. This helps athletes quicken their reaction times to stay out of harm’s way, and to have quick reflexes and sharp hand-eye coordination. Safeguarding against injuries during training, performing, or play is crucial to staying in the game for a long time.

A lack of sleep can also cause the body to be in a more stressed and inflamed state. This condition, especially if chronic and long-lasting, also increases the risk of injury and reduces our muscle recovery potential.

Unfortunately, many people don’t invest in their sleep. They sacrifice sleep for little things — that extra hour of tv or getting those last chores done — without realizing that investing in sleep actually makes the other things in life a little easier.

Tips to Remember To Help You Make Sleep a Priority

If you are training for a big event like a marathon or tournament, proper sleep will give you a leg up on your performance. Here are a few things to remember to help you make sleep a priority:

  • Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day.
  • Follow the same sleep habits every night
  • Increase your sleep time a few weeks before a major sporting event.
  • Give yourself a chance to have daily naps if you don’t get enough sleep at night.
  • Don’t worry if you have one bad night of sleep, even before a competition — one sleepless night is unlikely to hurt your performance.

In order to sleep well for muscle recovery and injury prevention, even for light exercisers, investing in the right mattress will make the world of difference. A mattress that is the correct firmness and size for you will allow your body to fully relax during the night, and to get through a full cycle of sleep. This way, the muscles can be restored overnight, and injuries can be prevented the next time you head out to the gym.

There are even mattresses at our mattress store in Surrey that elite athletes specifically use to bolster their muscle recovery and injury. These mattresses have special technology and are designed to increase blood flow and allow for quicker recovery.

If you are looking for the right mattress for you, whether you are an athlete or not, we welcome you to our mattress store in Surrey. We carry a huge array of mattress options and would love to help you find the mattress of your dreams.