The Importance of Sleep for Performance & Every Day Life
By Sports & Exercise Physio, Britt Caling
In the last newsletter we gave you information about Water Therapy (Hydrotherapy) options to assist your Recovery from training, including Ice Bathing and Hot/Cold Therapy (if you missed this great information, click here to read it Here).
These strategies are great as an assist to training if you have access to facilities, but one of the simplest and key factors to assist your recovery can be done in your own home, and that is: ensuring you get enough rest and relaxation.
Key points about sleep you need to know:
— Sleep is when maximal physical and psychological restoration occurs
— Sleep loss may be related to the development of overreaching & overtraining and:
◦ increases the onset and/or magnitude of pain perceptions
◦ decreased focus and concentration
◦ causes difficulty in determining why errors are made
◦ causes confusion remembering instructions and facts
No matter what sport you do, these above factors are not great for helping you perform and improve, therefore it is essential you get optimal sleep and relaxation for good performance and repeat performance in training.
Did you know…
Your sleep perception (how you felt you slept) is just as important as how much sleep you actually have for recovery and performance.
Just as we wash our hands to ensure we reduce our risk of picking-up bugs that can make us sick, there are some things we can do to help ensure we have good quality of sleep. These factors are about good “sleep hygiene”.
What is Sleep Hygiene?
Sleep Hygiene refers to strategies to ensure you get good sleep and include:
— Maintain a regular sleep-wake cycle (i.e. going to bed and getting up at the same time of the day)
— Use napping appropriately (naps should not interfere with night-time sleep and should be less than 1hr)
— Plan fluid/food intake so you are comfortable to go to sleep and so that you don’t wake too many times at night to use the bathroom
— Do not use your bed for work or watching television
— Ensure bed is comfortable and the room temperature is appropriate (19-21°C is often recommended)
— Avoid thinking, planning or other mental activities. You will need to work out what strategies work for you to help this (ie. use a notebook to write your thoughts down before sleep)
— Avoid things which may reduce sleep: Caffeine & Alcohol
— Hyper-hydration: In a recent survey of AIS athletes, frequent waking to go to the bathroom was one of the major reasons for sleep disturbance and may be related to a large consumption of fluid with minimal amounts of sodium in the time between finishing training/competition and bed-time.
Best Tips
- Timing is everything: have a consistent bed and wake time
- Never stay up late for something you wouldn’t get up early for: for example, don’t stay up gaming or watching tv that you wouldn’t also put importance on waking early for. This will help ensure you get adequate duration of sleep
- You can’t always get what you want: its ok to have interrupted sleep intermittently around training, competition and travel- one night here or there is ok as long as routine is re-established
- You SHOULDN’T always get what you want: ie you can’t have your sleep interrupted by lifestyle factors such as parties, alcohol, social media or gaming
YLMSportScience is a great resource for the latest scientific information on many topics, including sleep. Follow YLMSportsScience Here
If you are having trouble with Sleep and Relaxation, try a Consult with our Sport Psychologist.
Or we can recommend trying MiND HQ who have developed a relaxation iPhone app, designed to provide athletes with all the tools required to manage stress and tolerate anxiety to perform under pressure.
Relaxation HQ provides:
- All the information you need to understand & effectively manage stress
- A checklist to identity your signs of stress
- A personalised relaxation plan
- The ability to monitor your relaxation response
- Four relaxation audio tracks and information to train you in relaxation skills
For more information phone Our Team who are here to help you on 07 5500 6470