Sleep is essential to your health

Do you think you get enough sleep? I'm pretty sure most people don't. Go to bed late, get up early, we get in the habit of not getting enough sleep easily. Then your body and your brain adjust to the new schedule and you're fine, right? Not so fast. Whether you're used to it or not, sleep-deprived individuals have a decreased ability to manage blood sugar levels and also may find themselves hungrier (particularly for high carbohydrate foods). So, sleep more for a healthier metabolism. 

Last week was a wake-up call for me in this regard. I was on-call at work, and for some reason had a couple nights where I woke up  and couldn't get back to sleep. Guess what? My ability to make good, healthy choices was impaired. I snacked more even though I knew I didn't really need any food at the time. Not a good week.

The good news is I still got my morning workouts in. The bad news is my workouts suffered. When you sleep your body spends that time recovering and repairing itself. More sleep equals better performance. Both my speed and endurance were affected last week. Now that I'm back on track my MaxOut times are increasing once again.

The MaxOut time I'm referring to is the length of time a person can do the Insanity Max:30 workouts before needing a break. Thirty minute workouts, go as long as you can. Even after you take a break, get back into it as soon as you can.

To finish this up, make sure you get more sleep. Among the many benefits you'll reap are better athletic performance, better management of you blood sugar levels, stronger immune system to help you fight off colds, and better decisions made throughout the day. See? Sleeping makes you smarter, faster and stronger.