Does Alcohol and Lack of Sleep affect my Gains ?

A study comprising of 10,125 university students aged between 16 – 30 years shows that poor sleep quality and short duration of sleep leads to muscle mass reduction and it also negatively influences muscle strength. Men who sleep for shorter duration say < 6 hours had low muscle strength compares to men who slept for 6 to 7 hours. However, for people who slept for more than 8 hours, there was no significant difference in muscle strength.
The main reason is the male main hormone testosterone. A study from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s scientific congress shows the relation between sleeping disorder and testosterone production. This research was carried out in 2296 subjects, who were between the age range of 16 to 80 years (average age being 46), duration of sleep varied from 2 to 12 hours a night and had serum testosterone levels ranging from 43.39 ng/dl to 779.2 ng/dl (average 303.33 ng/dl). After the analysis, they found out that serum testosterone levels decreased by 0.49 ng/dl per year of age, 5.85 ng/dl per hour of sleep lost, 6.18 ng/dl per BMI unit increase, and 2.99 ng/dl per unit of alcohol consumption.
A researcher from the University of Chicago medical center claims that people who skip sleep reduce a young men’s testosterone by the same amount as aging 10 to 15 years. Testosterone levels decreased by 10 to 15 % as their sleep was reduced to 5 hours and the testosterone levels were maximum for those who slept for 7 to 8 hours.

Take Away points:

1. Poor quality Sleep and lack of sleep affect muscle mass directly. So try to improve and increase sleep time ( 8 hours being  bien ).
2.  Alcohol directly reduces testosterone. So , prioritize, Gains or buzz . One should never abuse alcohol.

Stay Motivated m/