There are multitudinous advantages of running. Besides other benefits, it helps you stay in shape, improves cardiovascular health, and boosts your mood. It also leaves you relaxed and helps you become more productive. This subsequently improves your sleep cycle. An improvement in a runner’s quality of sleep will be evident from the very first run.
Running and sleeping have an interdependent relationship. Running helps improve your sleep cycle, and a night of proper sleep is important to perform better. It plays an important role in post-run recovery. An adequate amount of sleep helps repair and regenerate damaged tissue. If you are running for weight loss, then sleeping better becomes of utmost importance. Lack of sleep makes you irritable and negatively affects your appetite. As a runner, you will need more sleep than usual because of all the physical exercise.
An important question to deal with is how long you should sleep in order to perform better and run faster. While adults are advised to get seven to eight hours of sleep daily, runners should aim for eight to ten hours of sleep daily. When it comes to sleep, both quality and quantity matter. An easy way to determine if you got proper sleep is to monitor your body when you wake up. You should feel refreshed and energized.
However, how much sleep one needs varies from person to person. Therefore, it becomes essential to monitor your body. The easiest way to decipher if you need more sleep is to check if you feel sleepy throughout the day. However, make sure that you do not confuse it with fatigue and weariness. These can also be caused by high-intensity workouts. Another way for runners to discern if they need more sleep is to keep a check on their performance. If your performance is negatively affected, then, it might be because of a lack of proper sleep.
Monitoring your sleep schedule and registering data related to the same in your training log might also help you find the ideal time to sleep. A good workout plan for beginners will only help if the body is well-rested. Now, before you start to run tomorrow, do not forget to hit the sack and get proper rest.