Given that there is a pause on all sport at the minute, it gives athletes a great time to work on some of their ‘non-negotiables’. These are keys things that they will commit to doing every day that they know will positively affect their performance. Now you might be asking: how does this link to sleep?
Well, despite having years and years of experience at sleeping, most of us are still rubbish at it. A majority of people see going to sleep as a passive thing; meaning that when they feel tired, they go to bed and that’s it. However, in reality, sleep should be an active behaviour that you think about as an investment in your recovery, performance and well-being.
The best athletes see sleep as one of their hidden weapons and as one of their ‘non-negotiables’. So, given that we have more time now than ever to work on our own ‘non-negotiables’, we thought we’d explain why we sleep should be on your list, how it helps and how to do it better.
Why is sleep so important and how can you get better at it?
There are several different beliefs on why we sleep. For example, some suggest that we sleep as it helps our body to heal, rest, grow and conserve energy, whereas others suggest that we sleep to help our brains grow, process and consolidate information that we have learnt better. We still don’t have a precise reason for why we sleep, but regardless of what stance you take, it is beneficial to all athletes.
In general, sleep improves our concentration, memory, insight, creativity and helps to boost your immune system too. But why is it even more important for athletes?
The way in which an athlete prepares for a game is extremely important; and this starts the night before with a good night’s sleep. Research has shown that when basketball players got a sufficient amount of sleep, their speed increased by 5% and their shooting accuracy increased by 9%. These are large margins in sports where small differences can make a big impact.
A study examining the impact of sleep on recovery in elite footballers highlights how sleep deprivation may lead to impaired muscle damage repair and muscle glycogen repletion. Furthermore, from a psychological standpoint, sleep has the ability to improve cognitive functioning and reduce the likelihood of mental fatigue. This means that the with more sleep athletes can improve their reaction times too. Another study also showed that players with more sleep displayed better decision-making as well.
Another important reason to get more sleep is because a reduced amount has been linked to an increase in injury rates and illnesses too! For example, one study showed that adolescents who had less than 8 hours of sleep were more likely to experience injury compared to adolescents who had more than 8 hours of sleep.
So, how do you know if you are getting enough sleep? Time to take the pillow test…
The Pillow Test: The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes states that if you fall asleep within 5 minutes of your head hitting the pillow each night, you probably aren’t getting enough sleep. Try this tonight, and if you notice that you’re falling asleep too quickly, make it a priority to get more sleep.
There is no exact answer for how much sleep people need, but experts tend to recommend about 7-9 hours a night on average. The amount of sleep you need depends on your age, with adults and older teenagers needing less than children. A recent survey found that most of us are getting less than 6 ¾ hours of sleep each night.
When they are competing, there a few reasons why getting the right amount of sleep for athletes can be tough, for example:
Interestingly, if you look at the list of reasons why athletes usually struggle to sleep, you will notice that due to the current situation, they are not likely to be experiencing these things at the moment. This is why now is the perfect time to get into a good sleep routine. So, what can athletes do to make sure they get better at sleeping?
What to Avoid
There are lots of mistakes that people make before they go to sleep, in fact we wrote a blog about the 9 most common sleep mistakes that people tend to make. This list includes:
What to do instead
So, the research is pretty conclusive: those who get a better sleep at night get a range of physical and psychological benefits and this is more profound for athletes. A final note is that sleep is about consistency. One good night’s sleep the night before a match may work in the short term, but for longer term benefits make sleep your priority.
For even more resources to help you during lockdown, check out our free six-packs - we have two available for athletes. We also offer sport psychology coaching sessions via video call!