INSOMNIA IS ONLY SLEEPING LITTLE MYTH OR REALITY?

INSOMNIA IS ONLY SLEEPING LITTLE MYTH OR REALITY?

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Begin to make a definition of what insomnia is. Insomnia was defined in 2014 by ICTS-3 (international classification of sleep disorders) as a sleep disorder that was associated with a persistent difficulty in the onset of sleep, its duration, consolidation or maintenance of sleep quality. This means that insomnia is a problem that manifests itself as a difficulty falling asleep or being able to sleep the necessary hours of sufficient quality. The incapacity to be able to conciliate the dream or to be able to prolong it with the sufficient quality, to rebound later in the wake of the person being able to seriously affect his quality of life.

Insomnia is more present than we think, more than a third of the population suffers insomnia with nocturnal signs (difficulty to reconcile or maintain sleep) and 10% of the population has severe insomnia that affects their daytime life (Morin et al., 2006). Its prevalence seems to be located mostly in women with low socioeconomic status of any age (23% vs. 17.6%, according to the latest surveys)

The impact of sleep on our health is the maximum involved in the processes of endocrine, immune, metabolic regulation, as well as the consolidation of memory. The main function of sleep is rest. To do this, a series of anabolic hormones (GH, LH, prolactin and testosterone) are released and sometimes the release of catabolic hormones such as cortisol is inhibited. In this way the conservation of the energy of the organism is favored and ensures the integrity of the neural network. It has been proven that lack of sleep causes, among many other things (Ancoli-Israel et al., 2006 and Taylor et al., 2007):

● An increased risk of suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

● An increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases.

● It contributes to generating an inflammatory impact at the level of the organism, having a serious impact on the immune system and the microbiota.

It is logical to think that if you have not managed to rest well, your sports performance will be affected. So much so that the hormonal environment will be harmed and will turn against us while the levels of the major anabolic hormones such as testosterone or growth hormone will be reduced, leptin levels will be lower at the same time as the levels of ghrelin will be higher. This will be accompanied by an increase in cortisol, which as many of you will know is not the best ally when we talk about performance and recovery. In short, there will be a harmful environment to gain muscle mass, lose fat and control hunger, in addition to having a direct impact on our sports performance.

All this will be related to insomnia. If you are an athlete or want to maintain a balanced life you have to try to regulate your sleep schedule.

If you want to know the relationship between insomnia and sport here I leave a link to a very interesting video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjM9cSs2kk0