New UCLA research connects rest to fitness gains.
Once viewed as a nuisance to productivity, sleep is now considered a critical component of wellness. While we're sleeping the body is hard at work strengthening the immune system, flushing out toxins, and repairing muscles. Sleep can even help you get better results from your workouts.
Recent research conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles, in partnership with Equinox, sheds new light on the relationship between sleep and fitness. In the study, 32 healthy and active Equinox members (between 22 and 44 years old) worked out with a trainer once a week while doing thrice-weekly cardio on their own.
In addition to that, a subset of study subjects also took part in sleep coaching; participants were taught how to get better sleep while traveling and when to turn off tech before bedtime, among other things. After a few sessions, coaches adjusted participants' sleep schedules based on their body's natural circadian rhythm and solved for sleep-disrupting obstacles, like pre-bed stress, with mindfulness techniques.
After 12 weeks, both groups saw various measures of their fitness (such as body composition and aerobic performance) improve, but the participants who received sleep coaching had bigger gains—nearly all of their numbers improved two-fold. "They had a lower body fat percentage, more lower-body muscle strength, and a higher maximum oxygen uptake and lactic acid threshold," explains Christopher Cooper, Ph.D., a member of the Equinox Health Advisory Board and lead study author and professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "So for example, if you were training for a marathon and saw these measures improve, you could run faster."
"Ultimately, this means that for the same amount of work, you get a better return on your investment," adds Jennifer Martin, Ph.D., a member of the Equinox Health Advisory Board and associate professor of medicine at UCLA who developed the sleep coaching component.
While experts need more research to know for sure how the coaching impacted sleep, Cooper says the implications are nonetheless important for anyone who's training.
Small improvements in your fitness performance, like changes in body fat or maximum oxygen intake, can make a big difference," says Cooper, which could be what it takes to set a new PR.
For an idea of what the study participants experienced in sleep coaching, take our quiz below.