5 Sleeping Tips for Better Muscle Recovery

Athletes know: your muscles don't actually grow while you're squatting, lifting, and sweating. Your muscles grow while you recover, a.k.a. while you're snoozing on your Molecule mattress. If you’re serious about efficient fat-burning, higher insulin resistance, lower cortisol, and enough growth hormone for major muscle gains, you need to get equally serious about sleep. After all, poor quality sleep interferes with athletic performance by slowing reaction time, reducing attention, reducing strength and endurance, and increasing the risk of injuries.

Not fun, right? To avoid all that, here’s how to make sure you’re getting top-quality snooze that’ll keep your muscles in tip-top shape.

1. Don't exercise right before bedtime

As you've likely experienced, regular daytime exercise helps you fall asleep and wake up more rested. Hitting the gym when you ought to be hitting the sheets, though, can elevate your body temperature and leave you feeling wired, so make sure you end your sweat session at least three to four hours before you turn in for the night.

2. Turn off those devices

Really. Not only does your nightly Instagram scroll over-stimulate your brain with whatever every single person you know and their children are doing and/or eating, but the blue light emitted from your phone also suppresses the release of melatonin, thereby messing with your circadian rhythms. So vow to make your bedroom a no phone zone, and commit to that vow as you would your Monday morning HIIT class.

3. Nix the afternoon coffee... and the nighttime boozing

Consumed mindfully, caffeine boosts your energy, alertness and metabolism, but drink it too late in the day and your heart rate is soaring when you should be snoring. Ditto for liquor: if more than a drink or two wakes you up during the night, you're not alone. We naturally wake up while our bodies metabolize alcohol.

4. Get out of bed

If you truly cannot sleep, take a break from trying. All the pressure you're putting on yourself to drift off may actually be what's keeping you up.

5. Hunker down on a cooling Molecule mattress

Body temperature profoundly affects sleep quality and the amount of time spent in deep, restorative, slow wave sleep. Luckily, there's a mattress for that: Molecule mattresses wick away heat and moisture for a temperature-neutral sleep situation, while delivering all the support and comfort of a memory foam mattress. The result is an unparalleled night of rest and recovery—and an unparalleled workout the following morning.