You are training consistently, eating balanced athlete plates, and using all the fancy recovery gadgets, but you are not quite reaching the performance potential you know you are capable of.

Can you guess what the missing piece of the puzzle is?

If you guessed sleep, you are on the money!

Sleep is essential for all human beings. This is where your body recovers, restores body tissues, consolidates memories, and improves your body’s ability to fight off illness and infection through the production of cytokines. When you allow your heart to rest overnight (or with a nap) cells and tissues are able to repair, which helps your body recover after training sessions through the production of human growth hormone (hGH) and muscle glycogen repletion. Additionally, the various sleep cycles (light sleep, deep sleep, and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep) change your breathing and heart rate, thus promoting cardiovascular health.

Sleep helps retain and form memories, is a key part of cognitive function, and is important for overall mood. When you are learning new skills as an athlete, sleep is essential in creating memories of these skills so you can have improved performance in the future. Sleep is where those training adaptations happen. Moreover, cognitive function is crucial for all athletic functions. Loss of sleep is associated with a decreased cognitive function such as decision-making (ie. where to pass the ball, how to descend safely down a mountain) and adapting quickly. Lastly, sleep is associated with improved overall mood and decreases the development of conditions such as anxiety and depression.

Sleep and Athletic Performance

Sleep is just as important as your training sessions and is not something to skimp on. Evidence shows that sleep benefits an athlete’s recovery, mental state, and performance ability. Recommendations for athletes range between seven and nine hours per night. Elite athletes are encouraged to get at least nine hours per night.

While napping is not recommended for individuals with sleep conditions such as insomnia, napping or extending sleep hours in the night beforehand can be equally as effective after a night of inadequate sleep or a night of anticipated inadequate sleep (ie. travel, race night). 

There are numerous benefits of quality and quantity of sleep:

• In a study of male and female swimmers who extended their sleep time to 10 hours, they saw improved reaction time off diving blocks, increased kick strokes, and improved turn times. They also saw improved mood and decreased daytime sleepiness and fatigue.
• Another study of male and female tennis players that extended their sleep time to 9 hours showed improved accuracy of serves from 36% to 42% as well as decreased sleepiness.
• A study of men’s basketball players that increased sleep to 10 hours per night found improved shooting by at least 9%, increased sprint times for half and full court, and reported improved physical and mental well-being.

Each of these studies demonstrates that sleep affects reaction time, cognitive function and decision-making, speed and agility, and overall mood. 

On the contrary, sleep deprivation can negatively affect both health and performance:

• Decreased reaction time
• Decreased accuracy
• Quicker time to exhaustion
• Decreased capacity to learn and make decisions
• Increased risk of injury and illness (immunosuppression)

Tips for Improved Sleep

• Have a wind-down routine that signals to your body it is time to go to bed. Consider picking two to three things to do in the 30 to 60 minutes before you go to bed such as reading a book, taking a bath or shower, doing your skincare routine, or stretching to help you relax.
• Limit electronics in the 1 hour before bed including TV, cell phone, and computers. If you need or want to have a screen on, consider “nighttime mode” or blue light-blocking glasses/ tools.
• Avoid alcohol in the 3 hours before bed. This can negatively affect your ability to go into a deeper phase of sleep where your body does the bulk of its recovery.
• Avoid caffeine after noon if you are more caffeine-sensitive. Caffeine can stay in your system for 8 hours, which will cause wakefulness into the evening hours.
• Limit high-intensity sessions too early in the morning or too late in the evening. This can offset your sleep schedule/ routine.
• Take naps no longer than an hour and try to limit naps after 3 pm.
• Create a relaxing, cool, and dark sleep environment. Invest in a bed and sheets that are comfortable for you; Find a room temperature that allows you to feel cozy through the whole night; and, get black-out curtains if needed to eliminate any light that can disrupt your circadian rhythm. Your sleep environment should be used for sex and sleep. 
• Remove yourself from your sleep environment if you cannot fall asleep after 20 minutes of trying. Go to another room and do a quiet activity until you are ready for bed, preferably that does not involve screen time.

Tips for Sleep + Travel

Travel can take you out of your normal circadian rhythm, especially if you are traveling across time zones.

Some tips for improving sleep hygiene:

• Stay hydrated and avoid excess caffeine or alcohol when traveling.
• Eat meals according to the time zone you are traveling to.
• Get enough quality and quantity of sleep before traveling.
• Prepare for your travels by adjusting your sleep schedule to mimic the destination you are traveling to. You can do this by shifting your schedule in the one to two weeks before travel by one hour each day.

Sleep is critical for both health and performance. It is equally as important as your training and your performance plates. Make it a priority to reach your athletic potential. Happy sleeping!

-Dana Eshelman, MS, RDN, CSSD, METS I