Why Can't I Sleep After Working Out And BJJ Training?

Are you the one who is facing difficulty sleeping after the BJJ training or workout session ? You have invested your complete energy in an intense training workout session and completely felt wiped out after it. So why can't you sleep? After a workout or a race, a body gets physically tired and it seems like a night's rest would be so easy, but it brings about the opposite result.

On the contrary, moderate training activities are beneficial for sleep. After the intense training session , you can feel drained, tired, and exhausted at the same time. It is not an easy task to sleep after it, as all the sensations run all over the body.

Resting properly after the training session is an important component of jiu-jitsu, as it helps to recover the body. The more you rest the better it would be for the next BJJ session.

In this article, you will explore the tested techniques to have a great sleep at night after the Brazilian jiu-jitsu training session. Let's figure it out.

Many grapplers and fighters face difficulty while sleeping at night. Various reasons are very complicated and dependent on the individual, who experiences the combination of factors that make reliable and restful sleep harder to acquire.

Looking at it the other way, we will find out that many people exercise to improve their sleeping habits. It is a matter of time and scheduling your exercise pattern. The exercise sessions in the time of morning and afternoon invigorate fighters and athletes. It helps them to feel potent and energetic throughout the day.

Moreover, the time and the intensity of the workout play a crucial role in the routine of BJJ athletes. That is why it is quite frustrating to sleep after an intense workout training session. Late-night exercise will leave you feeling wide awake and you will find extreme difficulty to doze off.

After a workout, the body needs time to relax and calm down, as the muscles are fully active. The BJJ training sessions activate the mind and body and enhance performance to give optimized results. The exercises activate the muscles and increase the blood flow within the body.

When you finish the BJJ training session whether in GI or NoGi the body needs time to relax and calm down. Certain chemical changes are undergone within the body, including the release of endorphins which make the anatomy more vigilant and dynamic. The core temperature of the body increases after 1-2 hours of workout. That is why you feel various problems after the BJJ training session. The studies suggest that it is better to do the workout in the morning and afternoon. So that your body can take proper rest to repair and recover at night.

As per nhlbi.nih.gov:

Intense training sessions before you have recovered can have a bad impact on your health. As it will put even more stress on the mental and physical health and the individual will take more time to recover. The key component is to follow your body cues, in most cases, the hangovers subdue in a day.

The athletes who are not used to the BJJ workout suffer from Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness DOMS. Regrettably, you will not feel the effects of post-BJJ training, as soon as you lay down to sleep, you will undergo the hardest time. this happens because of the sore and stiff muscles. 

Most of the athletes wanted to intensify their performance at once, and they started the BJJ intense training workouts that came out to be the hardest part for their bodies. It puts too much pressure on the muscles and imbalances the sleeping routine.

After all of the efforts, you made in the jiu-jitsu rounds, your body will experience severe pain as it cannot get into recovery mode during sleep.

Allow yourself to get into the low energy state, as it will be hard to sleep when your mind and muscles show their full potential. 

One of the core reasons for not sleeping properly is not having a solid sleep schedule. It is considered detrimental to your Brazilian jiu-jitsu performance.

Gradually maintain the momentum of your body to attain the long hours of performance on the mat. Give your body enough time to get to a normal temperature so you can sleep properly at night.

If you can not set up a solid sleep schedule you can harm your physical and mental recovery or rejuvenation. The process of recovery occurs while sleeping, if you do not allow your body a proper rest period then you may feel tired and out of energy on the mat. 

The rise of the body temperature is another culprit to rest properly at night. The onset of sleep is related to the drop in core temperature, which should be before two hours of sleep. Interference with the circadian process results in deep sleep suffering. Exercise raises the body temperature that prevents the nighttime drop, and leads the practitioner to stay awake at night. 

Jiu-jitsu is becoming more complex and competitive with the everyday passing. With the widespread popularity, every practitioner wanted to avail advantages. Strength training comes up as the best answer.

Most Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athletes and fighters do strength training sessions for jiu-jitsu and make them far more complicated than they need to be. The level of complexity is unnecessary, the simplest and the most effective way for the conditioning programs is to add a little bit of weight as long as possible.

Several possibilities will work for you:

• When you feel worn out or fatigued, take a nice easy day without much complexities.
• If you feel boredom then move towards the variation of the strength training exercises.
• The main priority is to stick with actual BJJ Sports. you need to structure the conditional way of training according to it.
• Do not place hard or intense training sessions right before the jiu-jitsu competitions.
• Recovery time is essential during the intense training exercises.
• Your training schedule should be based on both variations that is the lighter days and harder days.

The hormones released during the BJJ workout session provide a hindrance to sleeping properly at night. These hormones can play a vital role in the metabolism. Cortisol is a stress hormone that is a part of the nervous and endocrine system. It is also called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA), and it regulates the sleep awakening cycles.

 Cristina Caldwell, a physiologist and nutritionist says:

Along with it the other hormones catecholamine, epinephrine (or adrenaline), and norepinephrine (or noradrenaline) also hinder the sleep process. When the intensity and duration of the exercises increase, the heart rate and the blood flow to the muscles raise the alertness of the body. The increased alertness is considered a benefit for the hard intervals or bouts. The hormone norepinephrine promotes the activeness within the muscles. On the contrary, disturbs the deep quality of sleep with elevated levels of chemical reactions. 

Brazilian jiu-jitsu comes up with a lot of mental and physical challenges for athletes. Most of the grapplers and fighters have specific diet plans that vary from white to black belt. The diet will provide appropriate workload-effective capabilities for the practitioner. It is not the optimal way to consume the protein just before bedtime.

It has been recommended not to consume heavy meals with a lot of protein when you are about to go to sleep. Our body needs more time and energy to digest all of the protein. Consequently, the brain stays active to digest protein, and a person cannot sleep well at night. 

The intense training workout of BJJ increases muscular contraction and raises the temperature of the body. It is a major factor to do the right amount of exercise to avoid stiffness of the muscles. As a recovery cold showers before bedtime release the stiffness of muscles and relax the body.

The cold temperature of the water will initially raise the heart rate and eventually calm down the body. The grappler feels comfortable and much relaxed after taking a cold shower.

It can also help to activate the immune system and release good hormones, enhancing melatonin production that reduces mental stress. Next time after the training session when you feel restless try to take a cold shower. 

Another biological process is the circadian rhythm it is a natural system within the body that responds to the environment. It is heavily dependent on the exposure of light. While using the gadgets at night time, or having the light turned on at night, especially the blue light will hinder the sleeping process. This happens because the brain signals the hormones not to release melatonin, as it helps in the sleeping process. 

The individuals who frequently use electronic devices at night came up with the problem of lack of sleep. The people who are hooked on the screens of televisions, laptops, and smartphones are slowly becoming the patient of insomnia. In order to calm down and relax your body try to read a book, and listen to soft music. The problems of the lack of sleep go away as you ignore the bad habits described above. 

Caffeine is known as an ergogenic aid that increases the endurance of the performance. It is also the major component that hinders the sleeping process. The study suggests that the consumption of caffeine six hours before the dozing time will cause disruptions. The fighters who take relatively huge amounts of caffeine either sleep less or fall asleep after a huge struggle. A cup of coffee might look tempting but stay aware of its complications at night. It has been recommended to avoid caffeine with the night workouts.

After the intense training workouts, most athletes get stuck into the habit of taking sleeping pills at night. It can have the worst impact on mental and physical well-being.

Maintain good sleeping hygiene which can be achieved by following some of the steps. Try not to use the screens before bedtime, turn off all the lights in the room, and create a regular schedule to sleep. Make a routine to do the bedtime workout which includes stretching and yoga, It will have to regulate your sleep and help to promote sleeping quality.

In Brazilian jiu-jitsu a good athlete is demonstrated by the skill set and how the person is mentally or physically fit. The capabilities can be learned and enhanced with the proper training but health should be maintained along with the intense training routine.

Give priority to sleep on time, as the study shows that the body will recover properly at night. Sacrificing the sleep time for training time will consequently damage the mental and physical functioning of the brain. Research has been conducted on fighters that show that adequate sleep time depicts a better performance of BJJ grapplers on the mat. Their response rate, speed, time, and metabolism also increase. 

Understand the fact that intense training sessions will activate the muscles of the body. The athlete and BJJ grappler will feel the contraction in the muscles, which also activates the mind. All you need to do is take a cold shower, avoid caffeine, do not use the screens during bedtime, and turn off the lights.

Realize the fact that to perform the best on the mats nutrition and exercise regimes are not sufficient. Sleeping is the recovery process that helps to relax the body and mind. A minimum of 8 hours sleep is essential, to maximize the jiu-jitsu experience. Once the intense workouts are done in the morning, deep sleep will easily follow at night. Take the right steps to increase your training performance in jiu-jitsu.