09/18/2025
Truckers, please make sure you're getting good, deep, restorative sleep.
Failure to do so is described in the article I'm sharing.
Vicki Simons
Studies have found that just one night of sleep deprivation can reduce muscle protein synthesis by 18%, increase cortisol by 21% and drop testosterone by 24%, effectively promoting muscle breakdown, instead of muscle repair and growth.
Lack of sleep creates a stressful state for the body, leading to an overproduction of cortisol, the primary stress hormone.
Cortisol is a catabolic hormone that promotes muscle breakdown. Conversely, testosterone is a key anabolic hormone that promotes muscle growth.
Sleep deprivation disrupts the body’s natural circadian rhythms and hormone secretion patterns, leading to persistently elevated levels of cortisol and reduced levels of testosterone.
Testosterone like other anabolic hormones (like growth hormone and IGF-1) positively regulate muscle protein synthesis by activating the Pl3K/Akt/m/TOR/ pathway.
Cortisol activates pathways that promotes muscle protein degradation, counteracting the effects of anabolic hormones.
The disruption of the hormonal environment and biological rhythms due to poor sleep negatively affects skeletal muscle metabolism, reducing the rates of protein synthesis required for muscle repair and growth.
PMID: 36272396, 33400856
