When does muscle repair happen during sleep? (2023)

What stage of sleep does muscle repair?

Non-REM Sleep: known as slow-wave or deep sleep, this phase is essential for muscle recovery and restoring the body.

Sleep Deprivation and Muscle Recovery

Your body will produce less protein than it otherwise would. That's why you need to sleep for at least 7 hours a night if you want your muscles to grow properly and quickly.

When we sleep, our body builds them back up even stronger. This is because as you sleep, the pituitary gland releases a growth hormone that rebuilds and repairs muscle cells.

What researchers discovered was that the individuals who slept only 5.5 hours had 60% less muscle mass at the end of the study, while those who slept 8.5 hours had 40% more muscle mass. Obviously, we can see the powerful effect that sleep has on muscle recovery and growth.

As you fall into the deeper stages of sleep, your muscles will see an increase in blood flow, which brings along oxygen and nutrients that that help recover and repair muscles and regenerate cells. Hormones play a role, too.

This gain in muscle, also called training effect, is decreased without the testosterone to recover from intense physical activity. THE MAJORITY OF MUSCLE REPAIR AND GROWTH OCCURS DURING SLEEP WHEN HORMONES ARE RELEASED.

During the deepest phases of sleep, blood flow to muscles increases. Since blood carries oxygen and nutrients, this helps the muscles heal. In many cases, cells are regenerated by this increased flow of blood.

“Naps are the body's way to facilitate physical recovery after a long or hard workout,” Bender. said “During sleep, different hormones are released such as testosterone and growth hormone which helps repair and build muscles and other tissues in the body.”

You should try to get between 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night in order to maximize muscle growth and support your health.

Downtime between workouts (whether you're lifting, doing cardio or training for a sport) is when our bodies have a chance to actually build muscle. Strenuous workouts cause muscle breakdown, while rest allows our bodies to build it back up.

Does muscle rebuild while awake?

If you have worked your muscles and they need repair, they will grow even when you are awake.

As Dr. Thomas Roth says in Matthew Walker's book, Why We Sleep, “The number of people who can survive on 5 hours of sleep or less without any impairment, expressed as a percent of the population, and rounded to a whole number, is zero.”

If you nap in the morning, the sleep consists primarily of light NREM (and possibly REM) sleep. In contrast, napping later in the evening, as your sleep drive increases, will comprise more deep sleep. This, in turn, may disrupt your ability to fall asleep at night. Therefore, napping late in the day is discouraged.

Sleep is regarded as one of the most important factors when it comes to physical recovery, especially if you are exercising. It is during this time when 95% of growth hormone (a key building block in muscle recovery) is released, allowing you to ease those aches and pains and continue through training.

Going to sleep between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. is associated with a lower risk of developing heart disease in comparison with earlier or later bedtimes, according to a study published Tuesday in the European Heart Journal — Digital Health.

To get optimal gains in maximum strength, the body needs a complete recovery, so 48 to 72 hours. In concrete terms, if you perform a chest session, you will need to wait between 2 to 3 days before working the same muscle group again.

Fibrous connective tissues like ligaments and tendons as well as bones, cartilage, and nerves tend to take the longest to heal.

During the REM stage, most muscles are paralyzed in a condition known as atonia. This keeps the legs and arms from flailing in response to dream content. Respiratory and eye muscles stay active, though, and the darting of the eyes behind closed eyelids is the inspiration for the name rapid eye movement sleep.

Chronic sleep loss is a potent catabolic stressor, increasing the risk of metabolic dysfunction and loss of muscle mass and function.

Is it OK to sleep 6 hours a night?

Adults. The recommended number of hours is 7 to 9 hours, with 6 hours or 10 hours of sleep deemed appropriate on either side. It is not a good idea to get 6 hours or less of sleep.

It really is that important. There's no point in doing hardcore workouts if you're consistently getting less than 6-hours of sleep per night. 8-hours is ideal, while 9-10 hours is even better.

After a relatively light workout, your muscles may be able to recover in 24 hours, whereas a more challenging workout might take two to three days. Very intense workouts might take even longer. Other factors that can affect your recovery time include: how well you sleep.

The recommended time for muscle recovery is 48-72 hours. This will depend on your body composition, diet, physical activity, and strength. When someone workouts at a higher intensity, they will experience a higher amount of muscle damage than someone who works out at a lower intensity.

Cue the ever-important rest day. It turns out, exercise experts pretty much agree on the number of rest days people who are in good shape and exercising regularly should take: On average, you should be taking two days per week for rest and active recovery.

Due to the importance of sleep for muscle recovery, athletes need even more rest with 9-10 hours of sleep required to aid muscular recovery from the extra load.

In general, it takes 24–36 hours for your muscles to recover from endurance exercise (i.e., running and cycling), and up to 72 hours for muscles to recover from high-intensity exercise (i.e., plyometrics, heavy strength training and sprinting), according to van Kouwen.

Muscles like your quadricep or gluteal muscles are relatively big, and they're involved in a lot of different sitting and standing motions, so these will take more time to recover.

With that being said, different muscle groups tend to have different rates of recovery, with smaller muscles—biceps, triceps, calves—being able to recover more quickly than larger muscles—lats, quads, hamstrings, etc.

48-72 hours is the recommended time for muscle recovery. In order to speed muscle recovery, you can implement active rest after your workout session and have the right macronutrients in your diet.

Is 3 days enough for muscle recovery?

One study found that it took 72 hours of rest — or 3 days — between strength training sessions for full muscle recovery, while research from the ACE Scientific Advisory Panel says that a recovery period could be anywhere from two days up to a week depending on the type of exercise.