INTRODUCTION
More often than not we spend the vast majority of our time concerned with the content of our training and how we can maximize every last performance gain: exercise selection, intensity of lift, speed, time of day, session order etc. But training only accounts for 1-2 hours of our day, what about the other 22? Well designed training plans are built around the concept of general adaptation syndrome. We subject the body to a stressor (Physical or psychological), the body resists, recovers and adapts. However, if the balance begins to tilt in the wrong direction, the accumulation of stressors becomes too high and our ability to recover is insufficient this can lead to exhaustion, overtraining or injury. With this in mind, we believe its vitally important to educate our athletes on recovery and help them devise a strategy that works for them, so ultimately they can continue to train, adapt, compete, recover and become faster, stronger, more robust athletes. Recovery is often depicted as ice baths, cryotherapy chambers or utilizing sports massage and these recovery modalities can make a difference, but not without solid foundations, and the 2 key pillars of recovery are sleep and nutrition.
WHY IS SLEEP IMPORTANT?
Research suggests that athletes tend to sleep less than their age matched peers. Why? Often training times can be early in the morning or late at night. Competition is normally in the evening. If training or competition is late, meal times tend to be later which makes it harder to get to sleep. Schedules may also involve a lot of travel which can inadvertently mean early starts or late arrivals. Even competition anxiety can effect your sleep. This matters.
Sleep deprivation has been shown to reduce mental acuity: things such as reaction time, decision making and concentration (Hence why Whoop bands are so popular in golf at the moment) as well as mood. It can also increase perception of effort, essentially your training or competition feels harder. From a physiological perspective sleep deprivation has been associated with increased injury incidence, it can impair the bone remodeling & repair process after exercise. It can also negatively impact upon our dietary choices, we lack energy so our body craves instant gratification which it can get from sugar. Anyone reading this over the age of 30, you really do have reason to show off to your partner of friends after a good nights sleep. Don't worry, help is on its way.
WHAT MATTERS?
When people think of sleep they often think in terms of duration but unfortunately this doesn't tell the whole story. I am sure people reading this can relate when I say sometimes we can sleep 10 hours and wake up feeling worse than when we slept for 7. Yes we should be aiming to sleep for 7-9 hours but sleep quality is just as important. Sleep quality refers to how restful your nights sleep was. How long did you spend in your most restorative stages of sleep? How often were you disturbed in the night? How much time in bed was actually spent asleep?
This is a good time to introduce the term 'Sleep Efficiency': Time asleep / time in bed. We want to do all we can to increase this percentage and maximize sleep quality. A typical night sleep is made up of 4-6 sleep cycles each lasting approximately 90 minutes. Each cycle is made up of multiple stages but the 2 most important are slow wave sleep (SWS or 'Deep Sleep) and REM and these occur towards the end of each cycle. REM is important for memory consolidation and is the stage where dreaming occurs. SWS is thought to be the most important for recovery. Research has shown an increase in growth hormone during this phase and suggests its important for things such as bone remodeling and regeneration of other tissue such as muscle. Increases in SWS have also been shown to increase peoples perception of wakefulness. This is where sleep trackers such as 'Whoop Bands' can be really beneficial (See an example of feedback from my Whoop band above). They provide relatively accurate feedback on sleep duration but also time spent in each stage. From my own personal experience using the bands, time spent in REM and SWS was more predictive of how I felt the following day than total time spent asleep.
5 TIPS FOR A BETTER NIGHTS SLEEP
There is some good news, I promise! Research has shown sleep extension can really improve performance and recovery. There are plenty of strategies you can use to improve your recovery through sleep, these will be very specific to you but these core principles should help you along the path to a better nights sleep.
Consistent bed and wake times
Creating the right environment
Screen time
Caffeine
Naps
CONSISTENT BED AND WAKE TIMES
This may seem completely irrelevant but may well be the most important, and this is because of your circadian rhythm: essentially your 24 hour internal body clock. This process is responsible for cyclical hormone release that helps make us feel tired at night and awake in the morning. Some of us are naturally more energized and awake in the morning (Early Birds) and some at night (Night Owls). Unfortunately, as society has evolved, life has got in the way of our circadian rhythms and that is why we require alarm clocks. You may be a night owl but need to be up for training at 5am. You may be an early bird but work the late shift that finishes at 11pm. These things may not be under our control but keeping consistency with our bed and wake times is and this is paramount. Consistency maintains our circadian rhythm and has been associated with increased REM and SWS sleep, decreased resting heart rate and better sleep efficiency. Essentially, it improves the restorative capacity of sleep. This is why we often struggle to sleep in on our days off, and when we do have a late night and subsequently sleep in, often feel worse.
CREATING THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT
The best conditions for a good night sleep involve a quiet, dark room, cool temperature, clean and good quality bedding and a tidy bedroom. Let's start with cleanliness. It's no different to your desk at work. A messy, unorganized desk isn't conducive to a productive day at work. We want to create an environment that minimizes stimulation and stress and therefore a tidy bedroom is the 1st place to start. Quality of bedding may seem irrelevant but a higher thread count can increase comfort and better materials can help control body temperature. Having different 'tog rated' duvets throughout the year can also really help to ensure we stay cool as temperatures increase. If you live in a hot climate (Even the UK is having heatwaves greater than 30 degrees now!) investing in a air conditioning unit could be a game changer. Ideally we want the room to be slightly cooler than 20 degrees and an air conditioning unit gives us greater control. An element that is much easier to control is light, black out blinds or curtains are much cheaper than an air conditioning unit but can also be very effective. It may be extreme but if you have the luxury, you could even consider choosing a south or west facing bedroom as the sun rises in the east so will stay slightly darker first thing in the morning. Noise can be very difficult to control but a comfortable pair of ear plugs can help. If you are picking a hotel for competition you could consider location, is it near a busy road? could you ensure your room isn't road facing?
SCREEN TIME
Light can suppress the release of melatonin, the sleepy hormone. The release of this hormone contributes to the feeling of 'sleepiness' so we want to encourage melatonin release at bed time. Screen time isn't solely about light. Phones, laptops and TV's can also be very stimulating and we want to create a routine that reduces stimulation and stress. Therefore, try to reduce screen time as bed time approaches, ideally none within the last 30 minutes. This may seem extremely foreign to some but it might be a great opportunity to dust the cobwebs off the bookshelf. You can also set your phone to 'night mode' on both apple and android and this reduces the amount of light your phone will emit. This can be set to automatically turn on and off at certain times. This next tip is for those over 30s again: if you need to get up in the night for the toilet, minimizing light exposure can really help limit the disturbance. You can get bedside lamps that work with a dimmer function and bathrooms will often come with an automated system whereby a small number of dim lights will come on when you enter.
Another consideration is communication. Try to end all conversations within 30 minutes of bed and stay off social media. If we don't you can often spend time led in bed thinking about a conversation you were having and not actually sleeping, reducing sleep efficiency.
CAFFEINE
This one is pretty self explanatory. Most of us will drink caffeine every day predominantly because it helps us feel more awake and alert. When we go to bed we want the opposite. But caffeine is sneaky. It takes approximately 1 hour to peak in our blood stream but takes a long time to disappear completely, up to 4 hours. It also has a compound effect, the more we drink, the more it tops up our caffeine levels and takes longer to clear from our system. This tip is very simple, try to avoid caffeinated drinks after 3pm. These include drinks such as coffee, tea, energy drinks and coke. Where possible, switch to decaf options.
NAPS
Naps are a fantastic recovery tool in themselves. I for one would definitely work more effectively (and drink less caffeine) if my work permitted a mid afternoon nap. Research has shown naps to be very effective at increasing wakefulness, alertness, mood and an individuals ability to learn and take on board information. But not all naps are equal! Naps should be no longer than 30 minutes and ideally no later than mid afternoon. A tea or coffee prior to the nap can help restore wakefulness as soon as possible after you wake up. If you are severely sleep deprived and have only managed 2-3 cycles of sleep (3-6 hours) then a longer nap of approximately 90 minutes may be beneficial to try and recover a full sleep cycle. Anything in between will leave you feeling groggy.
Hopefully you found this useful and we have helped you on your way to a better night sleep. For more information on how we could help you with your performance please contact us info@myperform.co.uk. If you enjoyed the post please share on socials @myperform_ssc or message Jack on @jackchristopher_perform.