The Science of Pre-Sleep Protein

Eating protein before bed can lead to more strength and muscle, but there's an important catch.

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Today’s Health Upgrade

  • Evening meals and muscle growth

  • Preventing age-related sleep decline

  • Judgment day

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Study of The Week
How To Time Pre-Sleep Protein For Muscle Growth

Can your final meal of the day influence your ability to build muscle?

Research suggests that pre-sleep protein increases muscle mass by providing your body with a steady release of amino acids—but there’s a catch not mentioned in the research. 

The study found that 30 to 40 grams of protein about 30 minutes before sleep led to more growth and strength. However, timing your meal so close to your bedtime could have unintended consequences.

Other studies suggest that eating too close to bedtime can disrupt sleep quality and recovery and make it harder to fall asleep.

The solution is to be more intentional about your pre-bed protein. Simply push it back to about 2 or 3 hours before you sleep, and choose a slower-digesting protein or combine it with fibrous carbs or fat. 

While whey protein is a fast-digesting protein and absorbs about 10 grams per hour (meaning 20 grams would digest in roughly two hours), other sources of protein digest much slower. For example, eggs digest about 3 grams per hour, meaning that 20 grams of protein would take 7 hours to digest.

Remember, total protein in a day is far more important than the timing of your meals. The goal is to eat approximately 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of your goal body weight (about .6 to 1 gram of protein per pound of goal body weight).

If muscle gain is your goal, including 30 to 40 grams of protein in your final meal might offer additional muscle-building benefits. Opt for slower-digesting proteins like Greek yogurt, casein, plant-based protein, or animal proteins — or just have a mixed meal (protein, carbs, and fats). That way, there’s no need to have it right before you sleep, which could disrupt the quality of your rest. 

You might not be able to do much about your aging, but you can do plenty to protect against age-related sleep decline.

As you get into your thirties and forties, it becomes harder to fall asleep, you wake up more often at night, and — in general — you spend less time in restorative sleep. And that only intensifies with each passing decade.

The reduction in sleep quality is linked to a decline in deep non-rapid eye movement (NREM) or “slow wave sleep.” And it’s that slow-wave sleep that can help keep your brain young and preserve cognitive processing and memory.

Your secret weapon for deeper rest and better sleep quality might be exercise and the temperature of your bed. 

The more consistently you exercise, the more time you spend in the slow-wave rest, which is precisely what decreases as you get older. It's the perfect way to force your body to do more of what it needs.

But exercise isn’t the only way to improve slow-wave sleep. New research suggests that chilling your body before and during sleep can help you fall asleep more quickly and enjoy higher-quality rest. 

In the study, those who chilled their body by spending the night in a sleep pod experienced 34 percent more deep sleep and fell asleep 44 percent faster, increasing their deep and REM sleep, improving cardiovascular recovery, and reporting feeling calmer and more comfortable.

And the benefits are worth it, too. Sleep deprivation is linked to many health problems and diseases, and it can disrupt muscle gain, fat loss, mood, and immunity. If you want to upgrade your sleep, all members of the Pump Club receive up to $350 off the Eight Sleep pod.Use the code “pumpclub” at checkout.  

Mindset
Adam’s Corner: Judgment Day

You’re all familiar with the concept of “judgment day.” No, not Terminator 2, but the accountability, thoughts, and regrets we all encounter near the end of life. When the day comes, some people find peace; others find pain.

But what if judgment didn’t happen in the 9th inning of your life?

I found myself considering this question after listening to a recent podcast. A billionaire shared the pain and clarity of watching his parents grapple with death.

He realized that we reserve judgment too late in life. Instead of waiting till the end, what would happen if you judged your life in the third, fourth, or seventh inning? The answer is a sacrifice with much more upside than downside.

We oftentimes avoid judgment because it’s uncomfortable. But pausing and assessing is the best way to ensure you won’t find pain when your time is limited. 

Having an early judgment day is the ultimate recognition that you still have time to make changes, whether in your 30s, 40s, or even your 70s and 80s. This is an honest conversation about your core relationship with your body, health, work, friends, family, and yourself.

It wasn’t that long ago that my father was blindsided by brain cancer. One day, he was perfectly healthy; the next, the hourglass was tipped. On Sunday, it will be a year since he passed. I think about him all the time, so I don’t forget his memory, but also as a reminder of how quickly life can change.

Once he found out he was sick, my dad turned the diagnosis into a life sentence. He lived his days as if he wasn’t sick — and ended up doing more and living longer than anyone predicted.

My dad’s perseverance in the face of death left me with stories I’ll tell for the rest of my life. He never acted like he was dying. He was sick, and cancer was such a horrible experience, but he was determined and happy.

Watching him become relentlessly positive when it was so easy to be negative was like injecting adrenaline into my veins while listening to the “Life Is A Game Of Inches” speech from Any Given Sunday.

But it also made me wonder: What if he had his judgment day earlier?

My dad didn’t do anything wrong; he got sick. That’s life. And he didn’t wait till his deathbed for his judgment day — but he did wait.

My advice is don’t wait. Have the hard conversations. Judge yourself now. It doesn’t matter if it’s the workouts you’re avoiding, the changes you struggle to make, the people you want to be with, or the places you want to go.

Don’t do it to feel guilt and shame; do it for the chance to shape the life you want now and free yourself from harsh judgment later. -AB

Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell


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