How much does sleep matter for building muscle?

Sleep matters a lot, and 7 to 9 hours a night is the target for most adults. If you're regularly getting under 6, you're making it harder to recover, harder to lift well and harder to eat sensibly the next day.

I'd put sleep right next to training and protein as one of the three things that decide how well this works. It's also the one most people ignore, because it doesn't feel like doing something.

What actually happens when you skimp

Short sleep doesn't wipe out your gains overnight, but it stacks up. Studies on sleep restriction keep finding the same pattern: worse workout performance, slower recovery, more perceived effort and more hunger, especially for sugary and fatty food.

One bad night is not a problem. A week of 5 hours is.

If you can't get a full night

Life happens. A few things help:

• Keep the wake-up time fixed, even on weekends. A steady schedule does more than catching up on Sunday.
• A 20 to 30 minute nap earlier in the day can take the edge off a short night.
• Go a bit lighter on volume on days after very poor sleep, rather than forcing a max-effort session.
• On a short-sleep day, an easy walk or ride synced from Apple Health still counts toward the day in League of Fitness, and losing one daily match only costs a little rating that you can win back

Small habits that make sleep better

Cut caffeine from the afternoon on, keep the room dark and cool, and avoid a heavy meal right before bed. A hard workout too close to bedtime bothers some people and not others, so test it on yourself.

If you have loud snoring, stop breathing in your sleep, or you're exhausted no matter how long you sleep, see a doctor. Sleep apnea and other sleep disorders are common and treatable.

A quick check on yourself

If you wake up without an alarm feeling reasonably rested, and you aren't crashing at 3pm, you're probably getting enough. If you need three alarms and a large coffee to function, treat that as a training problem as much as a lifestyle one and move bedtime earlier by 30 minutes for a week.