New connections between circadian rhythm and muscle repair | Hacker News Reader

New connections between circadian rhythm and muscle repair

feinberg.northwestern.edu

89 pointslxm24 comments

>Peek and her team found that muscle repair after injury was greater when mice were active or awake compared to when they were inactive or resting.

This isn't the result I was expecting. That's very counterintuitive

If you consider it fully, you may change your mind.

The bodies natural cycle in sleep is not intended for muscle repair. So it makes sense that it does not suddenly become the prime concern during sleep.

Muscles get better oxygenation and fluid exchange when they are being used, pumped, and this helps remove lactic acid and deliver nutrients.the same can be said of the lymphatic system which you can look into.

Looking at top teir athletes, cool-down excersizes are standard practice after intense workouts...

All of these lead to this conclusion, though in hindsight, of course, it's easier to stitch together

> The bodies natural cycle in sleep is not intended for muscle repair

You say that, but there's a lot of evidence showing that poor sleep is correlated with poor recovery from training. Top tier athletes also carefully manage their sleep schedules.

Read the whole comment, I think that's addressed.

The sleep cycle is a regular maintenance routine. The whole body functions more efficiently with proper sleep. Sleep as a bodily function is not intended to repair serious injury. Otherwise, when people became injured they would fall asleep, except we don't fall asleep when injured. We become hyper vigilant and produce adrenaline.

So certainly there's correlation, but the broader picture 'makes sense' and is not counterintuitive

Yeah this is really interesting to me. I work out 4+ times per week, and I've noticed that when I go at it harder than usual, my body basically forces me to sleep twice per day until it's repaired itself, and when I sleep it's usually unintentionally 4-5 hours at a time. I'll wake up and can't go back to sleep, so I get up and do things for a few hours until it's time to sleep for another 4-5 hours. But when I take it easy with my workouts, I'll sleep a solid 7-9 hours uninterrupted. I wonder if my body does this because it needs nutrition and bloodflow to heal and doesn't want to wait for it.

Correct URL:

https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2022/02/investigators...

dang, please correct the submission url, currently it goes to a blank page.

One of the major premises in the book "Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker is precisely this phenomenon. We know that sleep helps to repair and restore organ systems, and it can also boost memory. This is exciting to see more connections as evidence supporting sleep as one of the most important things we do.

https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/

I’ve read this years prior. I don’t see how it’s relevant to this article. But if a whole book’s premise is invalid because of some bored dude wrote an article, then so be it.

When somebody cites a source, it's always relevant to point out that it's a bad source.

I also found useful this discussion of the topic: https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2020/03/24/why-we-sle...

The source of an argument irrelevant to the soundness of an argument, otherwise it's an example of the genetic fallacy, a form of ad hominem, a fallacy of relevance.

That's technically true about argument in some specific contexts. But it isn't in practice true a lot of the time, and is especially irrelevant here when it's not just citing it for an argument, but as proof of the argument.

It's hard to trust a conclusion if three quarters of the argument offered in support are inaccurate. At least, it should invite a healthy dose of skepticism.

Calling the author of the article "some bored duded that wrote an article" is not a really strong argument against considering the points it made.

Interestingly the article says:

Peek and her team found that muscle repair after injury was greater when mice were active or awake compared to when they were inactive or resting.

It seems sleep alone isn't the most important factor. Otherwise more sleep would linearly be beneficial to health and recovery, but, from a courtesy look into it, it appears sleep above 9 hours is inversely correlated with negative health.

> sleep above 9 hours is inversely correlated with negative health

So positively correlated with positive health?

Sorry, maybe I meant "linearly", or just "correlated".

That must have been a typo. From what I have read, sleep for more than 9hr is negatively correlated with good health:

https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/physical-side-effects-...

I suppose another way to phrase it is sleeping and being awake on your body's natural circadian rhythm is ideal.

The BMAL1 studies are fascinating in themselves.

https://academic.oup.com/nsr/article/6/1/87/5290357

These monkeys showed higher nocturnal locomotion and reduced sleep, which was further exacerbated by a constant light regimen.

This sounds like borderline torture

Fascinating. Those with more medical knowledge, what implications might this have for people with circadian rhythm disorders (e.g. N24, DSPD)? I personally don’t see much of a connection, but then again I’ve never been to medical school ;-)

There are also many studies done in the past by qualified researchers and your average YouTuber gym Bro concerning this very subject. was the sample/control significant? Some would argue diet is actually more important than either the amount/intensity if exercise along with recovery time.

Broken link?

Apparently. The correct URL is here: https://news.feinberg.northwestern.edu/2022/02/investigators...

ETA: The study was done in mice, so maybe the title should reflect that?

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