Let’s talk all things sleep! Quality sleep is one of the biggest contributors to sports performance. The efforts in sport and exercise science are often focused on different training methodologies and nutritional interventions to maximise performance, and rightly so. Optimal training programmes and nutritional guidance can help an athlete/client achieve INSANE results. One thing has always been clear, however. Poor sleep leads to poor performance. As a society, we get caught up in the “team no sleep” mentality as if it qualifies you as a successful individual to get little to no sleep. Yes, sacrificing sleep can help you to sometimes put some necessary work in to get further in your development or career, but let’s be clear: consistently poor sleep leads to a drop in performance.
We conduct daily readiness testing with some of our athletes, and in a few particular cases, just a few days of bad sleep led to A ~4 INCH DECREASE IN VERTICAL JUMP HEIGHT. Granted, this was not a long term change, but prior to - for example - a combine this performance decrease can be the difference between getting drafted and not hearing your name called. In this blog, we’ll talk about how quality sleep can enable you to train harder and perform better when you’re awake.
It’s important to note that sleep, in this context, is one aspect of the wider field of recovery. Just as recovery varies from athlete to athlete, sleep is individual both in amount needed and the timing of sleep. That being said, there are some universal factors that can help every athlete optimise their recovery during sleep. These factors can then be tailored for the individual.
Why is Good Sleep Necessary?
Sleep is a necessity for cognitive, physical and emotional functioning (Hack & Mullington, 2005). When we don’t get enough sleep, we enter sleep deprivation. In one lab experiment, rats deprived of sleep for up to 28 hours experienced increased food consumption, were unable to regulate their body temperature and were more likely to develop infections (Rechtschaffen & Bergmann, 1995). As an athlete or fitness enthusiast, maintaining quality sleep is imperative to performance. Sleep is one way in which the body maintains a strong immune system and regulates our cognitive and physical processes. It’s important to realise that planning, promoting and practicing sleep hygiene is just as important as the planning and prioritisation that we give to training or exercise. If you needed to be convinced more about the importance of sleep, here’s a summary of research showing how sleep deprivation effects athletes: - Sleep deprivation increases the chance of injury in adolescent athletes (Milewski et al., 2014)
- Collegiate athletes experienced reduced cognitive functioning, but did not experience deficits in anaerobic performance, after being deprived of one night’s sleep (Taheri & Arabameri, 2012).
What Can I Do To Optimise My Sleep?
1. Work out if you’re a morning or evening type We all have an "internal clock" called our circadian cycle. Some people naturally sleep and wake up earlier than others. 2. Find out how much sleep you need The amount of sleep for each individual varies. Typically between 7-9 hours for an adult is enough, but keep a diary of how groggy you are when you first wake up, how awake you feel during the day, and how tired you feel before bedtime to get a sense of whether you need more or less sleep.
Building up a sleep debt can crush you. If you've ever tried to remove a boulder from on top of your body, you will understand the struggle.
Here Are Some Tips To Get You Started
Let’s go through some more concrete tips that have been used by our athletes as well as teams such as the SKY Cycling team and elite basketball players who experience sleep disturbance during their competitive season:
1. Bed is for sleep. Try not to watch films or do work in bed. Teach your body to associate your bed with recovery, not brain stimulation. 2. Use blackout blinds to make your room as dark as possible. This is important for those who prefer a later wake-up time, especially during summer when sunrise begins around 4am. The sunlight can kickstart our ‘wake’ hormones, so this is a really key point to encourage sleep (Nédélec et al., 2015). 3. Try to have a caffeine curfew. Caffeine blocks the signals from neurochemicals that tell our brain and body it’s time to sleep. While you may not feel tired, you may have accumulated a lot of ‘sleep pressure’ (a build up of a chemical called adenosine in the brain) and won’t be fully recovered the next day (Moore, 2007). However, caffeine sensitivity varies between individuals, and depends largely on the amount of caffeine you consume, so optimising this process could take some experimentation.
4. Try to limit your screen time before bed. If you must use a screen, make sure you have an app like Flux that can remove the blue light. But try to have at least 30mins before bed without a screen (Nédélec et al., 2015).
5. Have a consistent bedtime routine. Sleep is a necessary habit and the body can optimise our time in bed if we can provide a regular time dedicated for sleep.
A build up of "sleep pressure" leads to sleep deprivation.
One last thing on sleep deprivation and recovery. It’s a huge - and very common - misconception that you can ‘catch up’ on sleep at the weekend by having a lay-in. Once sleep deprivation has occurred, it is impossible to undo the effects. While sleeping an extra three hours might make you think you’re well-rested, it actually disrupts the important sleep cycle that you’ve practiced all week. Sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday will only make Monday morning a more difficult and groggy experience. For a lot of athletes, Saturday or Sunday are also game days. So, while you may want to spend a little more time in a recovery state, try to achieve this recovering in other ways, such as a slow walk or mobility session, or simply a long breakfast or time reading/doing something that you find relaxing. Disrupting your sleep routine is not recovery. If you need to sleep a little more, try taking a nap (max of 30 mins) around 1pm. I suggest this because, for most people, our body experiences a similar (but much smaller) hormone release that happens right before we sleep at night.
Go get some zzZZ!
References:
Hack & Mullington (2005). Sustained sleep restriction reduces emotional and physical well-being. Pain, 119, 56-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2005.09.011
Milewski, M. D., Skaggs, D. L., Bishop, G. A., Pace, J. L., Ibrahim, D. A., Wren, T. A., & Barzdukas, A. (2014). Chronic lack of sleep is associated with increased sports injuries in adolescent athletes. Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics, 34(2), 129-133. https://doi.org/10.1097/BPO.0000000000000151
Moore (2007). Suprachiasmatic nucleus in sleep–wake regulation. Sleep Medicine, 27-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2007.10.003
Nédélec, M., Halson, S., Abaidia, A. E., Ahmaidi, S., & Dupont, G. (2015). Stress, sleep and recovery in elite soccer: a critical review of the literature. Sports Medicine, 45(10), 1387-1400. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40279-015-0358-z
Rechtschaffen, A., & Bergmann, B. M. (1995). Sleep deprivation in the rat by the disk-over-water method. Behavioural brain research, 69(1-2), 55-63. https://www.gwern.net/docs/algernon/1995-rechtschaffen.pdf
Taheri, M., & Arabameri, E. (2012). The effect of sleep deprivation on choice reaction time and anaerobic power of college student athletes. Asian journal of sports medicine, 3(1), 15. https://doi.org/10.5812/asjsm.34719