Should I workout on 3 hours of sleep?
That’s something a lot of fitness freaks ask.
However, this question originates from the fact that people have an absolute crunch these days taking out time for themselves.
Well, workouts take a lot out of your body, and you, obviously, will need some rest to follow it up.
Sleep is the best form of rest you can give to your body. It helps to recover from the after-effects of a strenuous workout on your body.
Hence, you must get an adequate amount of sleep in order to get the true benefits of the workout and avoid any problems.
There might be potential harm due to working out with 4 hours of sleep or less than that.
To know more about this, we need to understand the deeper dynamics of the sleep and workout relationship.
So, without wasting any time, let’s dive into the discussion…
Should You Workout When Sleep Deprived?
It’s not a healthy practice to exercise when sleep deprived.
Workouts are not solely sufficient to give you a fit and well-maintained physique. It’s just a way to improve your physical prowess that would only work if it’s fuelled with proper diet, nutrition, and rest.
Moreover, sleep is an important factor that affects the results of a workout. Also, in the long run, sleep may also make an impact on workout performance.
Now, the question is – can you workout sleep deprived?
Well, once in a while, it’s okay. You won’t feel much difference when you hit the gym without adequate sleep once a month or even two to three times.
However, it would show its effects when you start making this a habit. No matter how hard-core a believer you are of the motto, ‘be limitless.’ The body has its limitations.
You must understand the difference between working hard and torturing yourself. If you go into workouts regularly without adequate sleep backing it up, your body will get exhausted.
Sleep is the most important requirement for recovery. Your body undergoes the majority of healing and detoxification processes while you’re asleep.
Not getting enough sleep between your workouts will create a situation of chaos within the cycle of workout and recovery.
Nevertheless, it’s sometimes not possible to keep up with the sleep schedule due to various factors. Still, people tend to follow the usual workout routine.
This might lead to several health risks. Let’s see what are the risks involved in exercising with lack of sleep.
Effects Of Working Out Without Sleep
Working out might be just another task in most people’s routine. But it’s something that quite a few of them take too seriously.
They commit to the routine even if they are deprived of sleep. If this is the case one or two times in a while, it’s okay and won’t cause much harm.
However, this must not become a habit as it would be a bad one. There might be a lot of potential harm if you work out with less than adequate hours of sleep.
Following are the few risks of working out without sleep or on 3 hours of sleep:
#1: It Will Increase the Risk of Injuries
If you don’t get enough sleep between your workouts, your body is more prone to injuries. This is due to the fact that your body is not fully prepared for the next workout session.
Sleep is the primal form of rest that restores energy and the capacity to go through intense workouts.
If you enter a workout routine without getting enough sleep, this might lead to damage. Moreover, you can lose concentration during workouts because of not having enough rest.
This lapse in concentration can also cause injuries when you workout on 3 hours of sleep.
#2: Your Performance Won’t Be At Its Best
An effective workout will leave you with pain and soreness. A due amount of rest and sleep is the cure for this.
Here, we are talking about the scenarios when you workout on 3 hours of sleep. Well, it won’t go in the favor of performance at those workouts.
These half-hearted workouts won’t fetch full-scale results for you. Hence, it’s better to have enough rest and sleep between the workouts.
#3: Sabotages Tissue-Repair and Recovery
The healing process within your body works at its best when you’re asleep. Workouts only break and expand your muscle tissues.
Growth will happen only when you give them proper rest and nutrition to heal and strengthen.
Cutting down your sleep hours means that you are cutting out the rest hours for your body. This will severely interfere with the muscle growth and repair process.
Furthermore, going into a workout without recovery is a safety concern for your health. And 3 hours of sleep is clearly not enough rest to workout.
#4: Weakens Your Immune System
Putting your body through physical stress without adequate sleep can drastically increase cortisol levels within your body.
So, those of you wondering, “should I exercise when sleep-deprived”, it’s a complete no-no if you want to ward off diseases.
An unhealthy increase in cortisol lowers your body’s capacity to fight foreign infective microbes. Eventually, it opens up your body to host a wide variety of health issues.
So, working out without giving enough rest to the body weakens its immune responses to the disease-causing stimulus.
As of now, the above points tell us that sleep is an important factor in the process of recovery after a workout.
Hence, without giving yourself that opportunity to recover completely, you must avoid stepping into the gym.
However, most of these factors show up when you extend the habit of working out without adequate sleep for a while.
But one thing you’ll get to see promptly, and that’s the effect on your performance.
Let’s have look at what lack of sleep does to exercise performance…
Why You Should Not Workout on 3 Hours of Sleep? [Evidence]
Now, we already have an idea about the direct connection between sleep and workout. There are substantial negative impacts upon your workout performance due to lack of sleep.
We’re not asking you to trust the theory we present to you blindly. There are studies to support this fact.
Study-I
This is a study that deals with sleep and athletic performance. It says sleep is one of the most important factors contributing to your physical, emotional, and cognitive performance development.
Also, your body recovers from all kinds of stress while you sleep. Sleep and athletic (including workouts) performance are quite interlinked.
The optimal duration of sleep helps you to get through recoveries faster and effectively. Whereas, not getting enough sleep increases the risks of injuries and other health problems.
Sometimes, the opposite effects are also there to see. Excessive workouts and training can compromise your sleep quality. This will result in similar problems, creating a vicious cycle.
Study-II
Another study explores the effects of sleep on physiological and cognitive responses to exercise.
This one also gives out the results that sleep deprivation might result in a substantial decline in your workout and athletic performance.
Furthermore, the dysfunction of your immune system is among one of the major consequences of working out with a lack of sleep. Sleep loss affects the motor mechanism and cognitive responses as well.
This has negative impacts on the exercise performances as you are not able to completely process the movements, both physically and mentally.
Both the above-mentioned studies clearly state that working out is not a good idea when you aren’t getting enough sleep.
So, you should not work out when sleepy…
Now, this puts a lot of questions on the spot. One of the most important ones is what’s the right amount of sleep you must get in order to work out?
Let’s discuss this in brief…
How Many Hours of Sleep Do You Need When Working Out?
Again, a question that cannot have a standard answer. There are a lot of factors that might affect the sleep requirements of a person.
As we know, sleep refers to a mode of recovery in terms of workout, and every person’s body is different. They all need different time durations to recover.
Also, the intensity of the workout determines how much time the body needs to recover from the stress.
Most of the sources tell us that an 8-hour sleep is the best sleep duration.
But Arnold used to sleep only six hours.
Now, you must be wondering “I want to have a body like him, I must also sleep for six hours.” Well, sleep didn’t make his body. It was an amalgamation of several extraordinary traits that did the trick.
Most importantly, you need to understand that people like Arnold are a prototype of a genetic masterpiece that has a ratio of a billion to one.
So, we need to adapt the pattern that’s suitable for the masses.
6-8 hours of sleep in the night is enough to make your body ready for the next day.
However, it does not guarantee anything.
Sleep doesn’t work on recovery and healing; it’s REM sleep that does.
REM sleep is the stage of sleep in which you enter almost 1-1.5 hours after you fall asleep. About 2-3 hours of REM sleep is required to completely refresh your body and mind from all day’s stress.
If you are getting 3 hours of REM sleep in a total of 6 hours of sleep, you are good to go. This means your sleep quality is perfect.
However, not everyone has this kind of sleep quality. Most people need 8 hours to get 3 hours of REM sleep.
That’s why the standard for healthy sleep duration is set at 8 hours.
Now we know it’s not a safe practice to work out on 3 hours of sleep.
But is a light physical activity safer?
This is important to know because some people have a habit of jogging or taking a long walk in the morning. So, is it okay if they do it even they didn’t get enough sleep?
Let’s see…
Is It Okay to Jog with 3 Hours of Sleep?
Jogging or walking in the morning is considered a healthy habit. But is it still healthy if you go for a jog without getting enough sleep?
Well, for a day or two, it’s not a problem. However, you’ll feel the difference even on day one.
Walking won’t take much of your energy as compared to workouts or weight training. You can do it easily even if you are sleep-deprived.
But continuing the habit for long might have adverse effects on your health.
When you don’t complete the due amount of sleep, your body remains in the hangover of the previous day’s stress, both physically and mentally.
Any load you put on your body after that will just pile up. This pile-on will start showing its adversities once it gets past your body’s capacity to withstand.
Running, jogging, or even walking is not okay when your sleep cycle is disturbed. This might trigger the following problems:
- Sabotages your moods and energy levels
- Weaken your cognitive responses
- Increase in cortisol and other stress-related issues
- Decreases immune system strength
- Creates imbalance in your blood sugar levels
So, is it okay to jog when you lack sleep? All this information is enough to make you aware of the fact that you must avoid running, jogging, or even walking when sleep-deprived.
But if you lack sleep and wondering should I workout if I didn’t sleep well, you can go for a walk or light run for a day or two, but don’t make a habit out of this.
Well, is there any exercise or activity that you can do if you are sleep-deprived?
Let’s see…
The Type of Exercise You Can Do When Sleep Deprived
All the above sections scream in a single tone that you must avoid any exercise or intense physical activity when you’re sleep-deprived.
Still, if there’s something you can perform even while sleep-deprived, that’s yoga.
Yoga is sought as a practice for physical fitness, but it’s more related to mind and soul.
There are simple sitting poses that you can perform to give yourself relief from the stress of sleep deprivation.
No other harsh or intense exercise is recommended when you lack enough sleep.
You can somehow help lower the impacts of the lack of sleep on your physical and cognitive responses with breathing and meditation.
Now, let’s sum up the discussion with a few final words…
What to Prioritize – Sleep Or Workout?
In straight words, your priority must be getting enough sleep so that your body gets enough chance to recover, heal, and detoxify itself.
Everyone has their daily routine that’s stuffed with different tasks to wear out the physical as well as mental temper. So, you need to give proper rest to the body in order to keep it going the way you want.
Sleep is the best way to give your body the chance to recover itself. Also, most growth processes speed up within your body while you are asleep.
Workouts are part of a healthy lifestyle, but they’re not essential. Your body can run effectively on its course even if you eliminate workouts from your routine.
Hence, between sleep and workout, sleep is the one to prioritize.
Hope the blog was helpful and informative…! I would love to take any more of your questions down in the comments section. Please do leave your feedback.
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