For those unfamiliar with Human Growth Hormone (GH), it is a substance naturally produced in the body that is associated with increased athletic performance. The substance might be best know for its use as an unnaturally produced PED in professional baseball. For more info on the benefits of GH, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growth_hormone. For those of you already familiar with GH, read on.
For fitness minded individuals, recovery is of huge importance to athletic improvement. As GH facilitates recovery (amongst other benefits), it is clear that maximizing GH levels is of significant importance. While there are several alleged ways to do this, there’s one scientifically backed one – napping.
In the study, Effects of sleep and sleep deprivation on interleukin-6, growth hormone, cortisol, and melatonin levels in humans, published to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11061508, the research team clearly demonstrates a boost in GH in the initial stages of sleep. However, this boost falls off to regular levels after 3 hours of sleep.
Fitness minded individuals should draw the inference: the first three hours of sleep are the most beneficial to GH related muscular recovery. Additionally, the subsequent three hours of sleep are less beneficial to athletic recovery. Therefore, we can infer that breaking sleep into 6/3 or 5/3 hour ratios would be highly beneficial.
A hypothetical athlete might follow the following sleep schedule:
*2 a.m. – 7 a.m. Overnight sleep
* 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Exercise
* 7 p.m. – 10 p.m. Nap
This layout is modifiable based on your personal life schedule.
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