Dr. Claudio Cárdenas, neurologist and specialist in sleep medicine, explains that not sleeping the recommended hours modifies people’s heart rate, changes the measurement of heart rate variability (HRV), and facilitates the elevation of blood pressure .
“Sleep is a basic function of living beings that has to be repeated every 24 hours and must have an adequate duration, continuity and depth, so that the organism maintains balance”, indicates Cárdenas.
Adequate sleep time is essential for the cardiovascular system to return to a resting state, “and this is particularly important in those who exercise regularly,” he says.
According to Cárdenas, a break of less than seven hours, or interrupted, can reduce the athlete’s cardiovascular resistance. In the same way, exercising close to bedtime can cause poor quality rest.
“Sleeping less exposes the person to a higher risk of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke, as well as an increased frequency of death,” he says.
In this sense, he comments that the recommendations for an athlete are the same that any individual interested in staying healthy must comply with. However, he makes a special call to the sports community, “because many times he attributes that exercising allows you to subtract hours of sleep; an idea without scientific support that drives people to wake up very early in the morning and not sleep more than six hours”.
Sleep is necessary for muscle recovery
Mauro González, personal trainer indicates that sleep helps muscle recovery and growth, and rest from the fatigue caused by training.
González points out that for an athlete this habit should be at least eight hours a day, and that it is not advisable to replace night with day.
Likewise, González considers that by resting correctly after training, the stress of the body is lowered and better results are achieved in the metabolism.