by Tony Gjokaj July 19, 2021 3 min read
In our quest to find what is leading to the decline in testosterone in men, we look towards the lifestyle choices encountered in our society today.
While we are all about optimal performance, some of us will sacrifice sleep, proper eating habits, and exercise for career performance.
One of the most neglected factors in this pursuit is sleep... and sleep is one factor that can have a large impact on testosterone.
So in this post, we are going to go over how sleep impacts your testosterone levels.
Let's dive in!
Firstly, the most important thing you need to understand is that peak testosterone production occurs when you sleep. This means that quantity and quality of sleep both have a large impact on our testosterone production.
Sleep deprivation is associated with decreased levels of testosterone. According to one study, reducing sleep from 8 hours to 5 hours for 5 straight days led to reduced testosterone levels by over 10% in young men. In another study, sleep deprivation for over 33 hours straight led to a 27% average decrease in testosterone.
Low testosterone levels in men are even associated with insomnia, according to a study done on male cancer patients. With low testosterone levels comes disrupted sleep cycles, which are caused by increases in cortisol (which contribute to wakefulness).
This is why I recommend measuring sleep when it comes to fat loss dieting. Recall in our previous post that calorie restriction is associated with decreases in testosterone, which you can read here.
You should also consider that a higher than normal body fat percentage can impact your sleep as well. According to one study, obesity is correlated to poor sleep AND low testosterone production, so it is extremely important that you stay in a healthy body fat percentage. This would be in the body fat percentage of 10-15% in men.
Based on the factors we've listed above, we recommend you get a consistent amount of quality sleep.
Here are a few things you can do to improve your sleep:
Optimizing your testosterone levels naturally can come from a variety of lifestyle choices: from exercise, to nutritional habits, and even from sleep.
As testosterone levels continue to fall in young men every year, we need to focus on building healthy habits that mitigate this decline. This is one of our main goals for Reforged.
I hope this provided another angle of importance as to why getting proper sleep is essential to your testosterone levels as a man.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email us at support@reforgedperformance.com, or direct message us on Instagram.
Until next time, Reforged Warrior!
Tony is the Owner of Reforged. He is a PN1 Certified Nutrition Coach and has been in the fitness space for over a decade. His goal is to help millions exercise their way out of depression and anxiety.
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