Even if you train properly and supply sufficient nourishment, if you don’t provide enough sleep and overall rest between workouts, your body won’t be able to recover properly in order to build muscle and gain weight.
Get at least eight hours sleep each night when you’re in hard training, and minimize physically demanding activity outside of your gym workouts. Ideally, eliminate all physically demanding activities other than your workouts.
How many hours of sleep do you need?
According to the National Institutes of Health, the average adult sleeps less than seven hours per night. In today’s fast-paced society, six or seven hours of sleep may sound pretty good. In reality, though, it’s a recipe for chronic sleep deprivation.
There is a big difference between the amount of sleep you can get by on and the amount you need to function optimally. Just because you're able to operate on seven hours of sleep doesn't mean you wouldn't feel a lot better and get more done if you spent an extra hour or two in bed.
While sleep requirements vary slightly from person to person, most healthy adults need between seven and a half to nine hours of sleep per night to function at their best. Children and teens need even more (see Average Sleep Needs table below). And despite the notion that our sleep needs decrease with age, older people still need at least seven and a half to eight hours of sleep. Since older adults often have trouble sleeping this long at night, daytime naps can help fill in the gap.
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