Working on your health, nutrition and fitness goals requires dedication, consistency, and a healthy dose of quality sleep. While you might be consistently active and maintaining a clean diet, neglecting resting can significantly slow down your progress, and impair your health.
Social Jetlag: The Jetlag You Never Though Of
Our brain thrives on routine and stability. The more consistent you are with your sleep schedule, the more likely you are to feel well-rested and “functioning better.”
However, during the weekends we tend to throw our schedule out the window, opting for later nights and sleep-ins.
While occasionally staying up late and sleeping in isn’t inherently negative, drastic and repeated shifts can lead to “Social Jetlag.” This phenomenon, like experiencing actual jet lag, occurs when your bedtime schedule dramatically changes. In the following hours and days, you may feel disoriented and sluggish, as if you’ve just flown across the globe and your body struggles to adjust to the new “time zone” of your inconsistent sleep patterns.
Social jetlag is the term used to describe the mismatch between a person’s internal clock and their daily schedules, especially when they have different sleep patterns on weekdays and weekends.
The more “sleep debt” you accumulate, the more you might struggle.
How might Social Jetlag and, more broadly, inconsistent sleep schedules, impact your physical and mental health, as well as your overall performance?
Why Sleep Matters
Though sleep remains a fascinating mystery, one clear benefit is its impact on your health and performance. While your body may appear still, your brain remain surprisingly active, potentially even more so than when you’re awake. Let’s explore how proper sleep enhances your well-being.
Sleeping and Your Fitness
Sleep plays a vital role in muscle recovery, strength development, and overall physical performance.
When you’re sleep-deprived, your body struggles to repair and rebuild muscle tissue, leading to decreased strength and performance.
You surely had experienced these side effects in any of the sports you like practicing whether in the gym, in the nature or on the field. When your brain “lags” because it’s tired, your reaction time also increases and your coordination decreases along with it.
Reaction times increase as a person accumulates sleep debt. This means that the more sleep a person loses, the longer it takes for them to react to a stimulus. In one study, research subjects were allowed to sleep for five hours per night for a week. Over the course of the week, participants’ reaction times steadily increased as they accumulated sleep debt and felt increasingly sleepy.[Source]
Additionally, insufficient shut-eye time could weaken your immune system[Source] and increase the risk of injuries, specifically because of slower reaction time and worse coordination.
Sleeping and your nutrition
Can sleep debt and/or shorter rest also ruin your fat loss progress? Looks like the answer is yes:
Disturbed sleeping patterns, in terms of both quantity and quality, have been documented to lead to an increase in energy intake, mainly from snacking, especially on foods rich in fat and carbohydrates[Source].
That means that when your brain is tired and your decision making is affected, it’s easier to indulge in those foods that can provide temporary satisfaction but also put you outside your caloric deficit goal (what is your daily calorie goal? Find out here!). As I mentioned many times before, one day when you have extra snacks won’t ruin your progress or suddenly make you fat but, if you repeatedly see this pattern of lack of sleep and heavy snacking, this could be one of the reason why your fat loss slows down.
While it’s not always easy to fix your sleeping schedule (parents of newborn babies hang in there), you can work on the snacking side being ready with options that can equally satisfy you but keep in you the correct range for example fruits and high protein snacks.
As many things in nutrition being aware and honest with your choices goes a long way VS feeling guilty and punishing yourself for an extra snack.
4 Simple Tips and Habits to Improve Your Sleep Quality
The important aspects of these tips is that you can apply them to your own routine piece by piece, it doesn’t have an ALL-OR-NOTHING situation. Incremental improvements go a long way to support your behavioral changes.
Pick the easiest, simplest and most doable for you and start from there. When you’re comfortable, add another. Take it from there.
1 - Stability and Routine are The Solid Base
Work on establishing a consistent sleep schedule: your body thrives on routine. Having a sleep schedule as regular as you can (given your lifestyle and possibility), even on weekends, will helps regulate your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle. This consistency allows your brain to anticipate bedtime and prepare for sleep more effectively. The more rested you are, the better your days will be and the more energy you’ll have to do your things.
Try this habit improvement tip: Choose a realistic bedtime that fits your schedule and stick to it as much as possible. Set an alarm 30 minutes before bed as a reminder to wind down and prepare for sleep. Gradually adjust your schedule if needed, but aim for consistency at least five days a week.
2 - Ditch the Glass: Alcohol and Sleep Don't Mix
While alcohol may induce drowsiness, it disrupts your sleep quality by hindering REM sleep, the crucial stage for memory consolidation and emotional processing. This can lead to fragmented sleep, leaving you feeling tired and groggy the next day. We have all been there, waking up after one of those nights out, right? You might not notice but even smaller quantity of alcohol can effectively ruin your sleep.
Do you need to skip alcohol forever? Ultimately do what you feel is right for you, just be aware that alcohol has zero advantage and/or benefits.
Try this habit improvement tip: If you regularly use alcohol as a sleep aid, gradually reduce your intake. Start by cutting back one glass per night for a week, then progressively decrease further. Explore alternative relaxation techniques like reading, meditation, or taking a warm bath before bed. If you feel this is out of your control, seek advice of a specialist.
3 - Lights Out Before Bed: Avoid the Blue Light Trap
The impact of electronic devices on sleep is a topic of debate. While blue light emitted from these devices may suppress melatonin production, the hormone regulating sleep-wake cycles, the issue may go deeper. Evening exposure to blue light can indeed trick your brain into thinking it’s daytime, hindering sleep onset and maintenance. But another crucial factor comes into play.
Bringing your phone with you to bed and accessing endless entertainment on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, or Youtube exposes you to a constant stimulation loop. These apps are designed to keep you engaged for as long as possible, making it challenging for your brain to wind down and transition into sleep mode.
Try this habit improvement tip: Power down all screens, including phones, laptops, and TVs, at least 30 minutes before bedtime. Opt for dim lights and relaxing activities like reading a book, doing some stretching or listening to my podcast to wind down and prepare for your trip to dreamland.
4 - Create a Sleep-Conducive Environment
Your bedroom environment significantly impacts your sleep quality. To improve your sleep hygiene there are a few things that your bedroom should be:
- Dark and quiet to let you fall asleep peacefully
- Clutter-free to promote relaxation and undisturbed sleep
- Cool (not cold!) generally between 15° to 20°C (60 to 68F) seems to be the best temperature to promote sleep
improving these 3 aspects over time will already set you on the right way to get more sleep and feel better.
Try these habit improvement tips: Invest in blackout curtains or an eye mask to block out light. My apartment doesn’t have shutters so I rely on these to keep light out of the way of my sleep. Try using earplugs or white noise machines to minimize distractions. Keep your bedroom temperature cool and adjust your bedding and pajamas accordingly.
Oh, one last thing
Sometimes is difficult to tik all the checkboxes, not every day or week will be perfect and that is OK. See, this is a lifelong run, never ever forget. Every single time you can successfully make an improvement over time is a victory, forget about perfection as it is unattainable and, frankly, stressful.
Focus on the things you can control, one by one and take it from there.
If there’s anything I can help you with, you can always get in touch with me here or here.
Stay strong!
One of my favorite podcasts recently made an episode about this very same topic, you can listen to it here:
Great article, I also heard that eating yoghurt at night helps getting better sleep, myth or reality?
Thank you so much!
It could partially be true since dairy products are rich in tryptophan that can help with production of serotonin and melatonin and to initiate sleep. Rule of the thumb though, in general I wouldn’t eat/drink too close to sleep nonetheless as both can disrupt your sleep quality, especially if you have to wake up in the middle of the night to pee.