The benefits of sleep on athletic performance has been the subject of much research, as Jenny Blizard explains

Studies suggest that high-performance athletes need more sleep than those who lead less active lifestyles. Dr Cathy Speed of the English Institute of Sport says: Sleep is often neglected when considering strategies for optimal training and competition.”

Sleep hygiene” is a bit like a pre-race routine, ensuring that you have a habitual relaxing set-up before settling down for a good night s sleep. Sports psychologist Simon Drane adds: Aside from setting up a conducive sleeping environment, the first step, and the most important one of sleep hygiene, is to be able to ‘turn-off from the day s activities and tomorrow s thoughts and slow the functioning of your brain down.”

In our modern lifestyles, however, getting the required amount of sleep is fast becoming a luxury. Technology has allowed us to be available and accessible 24 hours a day, fewer people are having the natural downtime required in preparation for a good night s sleep and our increasingly stressful, busy lifestyles are ensuring that we take the problems of the day and the next day with us to bed.

The Human Givens Institute, which has conducted thorough research into the purpose of sleep, states: Sleep is much more than time out from busy schedules it is essential to the maintenance of physical and psychological health.”

As a physiotherapist, it is my responsibility to ensure that people maximise their recovery from any injury and the subsequent treatment that they have received, as well as taking preventative measures against a recurrence. Increasingly in my assessments, I am finding that fewer people are now able to switch off” at night, find periods of relaxation during the day and achieve their unique required amount of sleep.

More alarmingly, I am finding increased numbers of injuries are associated with nervous system sensitisation. This is due to the nerves that supply the muscles, joints and bones being affected and changes to processing in the central nervous system, which prevent injuries from healing. It is also a result of increased activation of the fight, flight, freeze (adrenaline-related) responses of the autonomic nervous system.

Although I am not a sleep expert, I am having to become one to maximise my treatment sessions and rehabilitation! The following article is a very brief summary of the latest research into good sleep routines.

The sleep cycle

Knowledge of the sleep cycle is fundamental for the athlete to understand just why sleep is so beneficial to performance. It has been established that sleep follows 90-minute cycles, within which there are a number of stages that we move through. The number of stages are not so clear, but what is established is that we move between stages of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

Non-rapid eye movement

We enter NREM or slow-wave sleep cycles about 20 minutes after falling asleep. Within these cycles our brain waves” slow down. It is in this part of sleep that our bodies are rejuvenated, taking the time to repair itself, activating the immune system to help fight disease and restore health. This explains why sleep deprivation is linked with increased numbers of illnesses, as the immune system is unable to carry out its necessary repair processes during the night. Skipping on sleep in favour of reading up about how the latest training methods and race results online suddenly becomes less of an interest to your own performance!

Rapid eye movement

In this phase the eyes can be seen moving beneath the eyelids and the brain activity is very similar to the waking state but there is no movement because your body is completely relaxed. In this stage it is thought that your unconscious mind takes the time to organise, file and install new patterns that you have learned during the day. Experiments have shown that this part of sleep leads to improved performance of learned tasks. The brain is so active in this part of the sleep cycle problem solving and making sense of the previous day, so that you can start the next day with a fresh and clear mind. It makes sense of the common phrase I ll sleep on it and give you an answer in the morning.” It really does work. This stage of sleep is also where dreaming occurs.

NREM sleep runs in 90-minute cycles followed by shorter periods, initially of REM sleep, which get longer toward the morning. If you wake up early in the morning in REM sleep, then you will remember your dreams.

The purpose of dreams

Psychologist and scientist Joe Griffin was the first person to review all the available scientific evidence and conduct research that resulted in the discovery of why we evolved to dream. It is not only fascinating, it also helps those with insomnia to begin to simply understand that they can t solve today s and tomorrow s problems lying awake and problem-solving during the night.

British Athletics psychologist Steve Peters, who is also a veteran athlete, highlights in his book The Chimp Paradox that during bedtime hours your brain is in chimp mode (also known as your emotional thinking” rather than rational thinking” part of the brain). So put simply, don t even bother trying to solve problems because you are not thinking rationally at this time of night. This is extremely helpful to know for those people who do literally spend hours during the night going over the same scenario.

During REM sleep, unfulfilled emotional expectations left over from the day are run out in the form of metaphors, deactivating them and allowing emotional room in the brain to take on the next day. This is important when understanding how chronic insomnia can lead to depression, anxiety, stress and further insomnia.

A lack of sleep means that the problems of today haven t been put to bed before we start the problems of tomorrow. This is compounded by lying awake in bed all night trying to consciously put problems right, which is solely reserved for your unconscious brain to sort.

Re-establishing a sleep-wake routine

Now we know why we need sleep and why we often cannot sleep, then what we need to do is re-establish a sleep-wake routine.

Get up at the same time every day

Do not cat nap”, no matter how little sleep you have had

Only go to sleep when you are tired

The tendency is to have a lie in, cat nap or try to go to bed earlier the next night. However, this stops the sleep-wake routine from being established. You cannot determine when you go to sleep, but what you can do is establish a solid waking routine to encourage a new and better sleep-wake pattern. Cat-napping and going to bed when not tired will disrupt the sleep-wake routine again. It s also pretty self-explanatory now you have to do all of the above otherwise it won t work.

Once a sleep-wake routine has been re-established, adding a nap in the day can then enhance your performance as long as it does not break up your sleep routine.

Pre-sleep routine

Anyone who has children understands fully the consequences of disrupting a child s pre-sleep and sleep routine by the following day. Often they are very tired, crying and agitated. It s the same with adults, only we are able to rationalise what s going on and change our behaviour accordingly. Rather than just modifying our behaviour accordingly (usually at the expense of being productive) we should learn from this to become more productive through better sleep.

Avoid stimulating activities at least one hour before bed. Your brain should be winding down to prepare for sleep, not being wound back up. This means TV, emails, phone calls, computer use and social media should be avoided. The bedroom should be for sleep and one other activity, but nothing else!

Promoting sleep with good nutrition

Avoid stimulants such as coffee, alcohol and sugary foods some researchers suggest from as early as 2pm. Alcohol temporarily depresses your central nervous system giving you a relaxed feeling, but it has a rebound effect later in the night. It also dehydrates you so that you wake thirsty and also needing the toilet.

Ensuring you don t go to bed hungry is just as important to prevent waking up in the night, but ensure you choose foods that promote sleep. Tryptophan, an amino acid, is a precursor to the hormones serotonin and melatonin, which help you sleep. Milk, bananas, kiwis, natural yoghurt and fish contain tryptophan. It is found in many natural, unprocessed” foods. The catch is that many foods we eat now are processed. For instance, tryptophan is commonly known to be in chocolate but the other harmful ingredients in chocolate such as caffeine, sugar and other chemicals actually prevent sleep and so cancels out the beneficial effect.

Going to bed dehydrated can make you wake up thirsty in the night so ensure that you are hydrated. Ensuring that you stop drinking about 45 minutes before bedtime should ensure that you don t wake up needing the toilet.

Exercise

An obvious benefit of exercise is that it makes you physically tired and so helps you sleep better. What is less known is that exercise approximately three hours prior to bedtime will help you sleep. During exercise your body temperature rises and gradually drops again and the same drop in body temperature also happens prior to sleep, so you can use this to help with the natural cycle. Careful though exercising intensely after this timeframe sees adrenaline released and this may prevent you from sleeping. Have you ever noticed how after evening races and hard track sessions it is more difficult to get to sleep?

Mattresses and pillows

I am often asked about mattresses and pillows to help with a better night s sleep. Sir Dave Brailsford, Team Sky cycling manager, is well known for his buzz phrase the aggregation of marginal gains”, which means that tiny improvements all add up.

For example, that team have their own mattresses moved from hotel to hotel each night on the major tours. This is an extreme measure in extreme circumstances and it is not uncommon for many of my clients to splash out” on expensive mattresses and pillows when they haven t even got the basics right.

My answer is always: It s what you do in the day that ensures you get a good night s sleep.” Lack of exercise and movement, poor diet and stimulants all affect our ability to sleep effectively and productively. Start with changing the most simple, commonsense and no-cost tips first before you spend your pennies on the latest advertised mattress and pillow.

Summary

Having a full understanding of the price you will pay for skipping on sleep will ensure that you take action to appreciate it more in the future. For the aspiring athlete, right through to the busy working parent wanting to compete at their best, sleep is not a luxury it s a necessity!

JENNY BLIZARD is a chartered physiotherapist who competed for Britain in athletics, triathlon and duathlon. Visit blizardphysiotherapy.co.uk or email [email protected]

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