Sleep: A Time Machine to Breakfast
Let’s get some admin out of the way. If you have kids and haven’t read “Go the F**ck to Sleep” by Adam Mansbach you’re doing yourself a disservice. More importantly (and kids or not), if you haven’t listened to it narrated by consummate badass Samuel L. Jackson…you’re simply missing out on one of life’s greatest pleasures!
Listen,enjoy, chuckle a little. It’s good for you. If not clear by the title, it’s not exactly suitable for work.
Let’s Talk About Sleep
Coffee. That sweet, sweet elixir.
When’s the last time you felt rested, energetic and full of vigor?
If you’re anything like most of the Western World, chances are that it has been a while.
Chances are also pretty good that your morning routine involves falling out of bed, sleepwalking to work/school and engaging in battle with hordes of weary-eyed colleagues, co-workers and friends for the most readily available source of caffeine. If it takes an espresso shot and three cups of coffee to clear the fog out of your head and get focused to start the day, there is a better than good chance you are among the sleep deprived.
Social media, binge watching Netflix, partying, video games. The list of reasons we stay up past our bedtime is endless, and the consequences are extremely profound. In order to understand these consequences, let’s briefly describe why we need sleep in the first place.
Why Do We Sleep?
Floppy disks used to be a real thing. Not just the universal icon for ‘save’ aka - memory.
Sleep is essential to human life. We can deduce this easily based on what happens when it is taken away: Sleep deprivation is fatal to animals in laboratory research settings, and in humans, it is impossible to go prolonged periods without sleep; the body eventually takes over and involuntarily induces micro-sleeps.
We simply cannot survive without it. It recharges our body and mind. And yet, the science behind sleep is confusing and often unclear. We know we need it, but its purpose, why we need it is less clear. There are multiple theories thrown around, but most center on two critical components:
Restoration: Sleep helps clear waste products (most importantly from the brain), aids in cellular repair, and optimizes function of the immune system.
Memory: Sleep appears to help consolidate and store memories, leading to better overall learning.
Both restoration and memory are critical components of performance making sleep a key part of any athlete’s life.
The Consequences of Sleep Deprivation and Sport
A giraffe in the wild will only sleep about 30 minutes per day. Don’t be like a giraffe - they probably can’t ball worth a damn.
For the average athlete, a lack of sleep can cause reductions in strength, cognition, decision-making, reaction time and overall performance, in addition to reducing the function of the immune system. While sleep is required for all athletes of all ages, younger athletes (12-18 years of age) require sleep at a much high quantity (number of hours) and quality (deep, uninterrupted REM cycle sleep).
What does sleep deprivation look in sport? It is a missed free-throw (accuracy), shooting when you should have passed (decision-making), being unable to fend off an attacker as you burst into the offensive zone (strength) and frequent upper-respiratory tract infections (compromised immune systems).
Unfortunately, it is hard to pin any one item down during competition, point at it, and exclaim “YOU MISSED THAT SHOT BECAUSE YOU WENT TO BED 15 MINUTES TOO LATE!” Life and sport never operates in such clear black and white terms. And because we can’t specifically nail down any one cause and effect relationship and then blame it on a lack of sleep, we struggle to identify it as a problem and make any sort of beneficial long lasting changes to our sleep routines.
There is also a cumulative effect to a chronic lack of sleep – surprise, surprise, it’s called being tired (fatigue). The more sleep deprived you become, the more fatigue builds, the more apparent these performance reductions become. These effects can start build after just two nights of decreased sleep. With adolescent athletes, the lack of sleep compounds, and most often, both school and sport performance becomes affected.
Less Problems, More Solutions!
Koala Bears: Quite possibly the laziest animals in existence. They sleep over 90% of the day. Be a more like a koala bear and watch your performance and cognitive abilities improve.
Hopefully it is clear how critical proper rest is for all of us, and athletes especially. Improving sleep quantity is the most obvious answer - just sleep more - But sleep quality is important as well. Here are some tips you can put into practice immediately:
Fix your physical sleep environment: Make your bedroom dark, cool, and remove electronics.
Try something relaxing before bed like meditation, light mobility work or fiction reading.
Avoid stimulating activities like video games, television and electronic devices – the brightness from these devices signal to your body that it is time to be awake.
Get into a routine where you go to sleep and wake up at the same time DAILY!
Avoid caffeine past noon as it can subsist in the blood stream and interfere with sleep.
If you are sleep deprived, a simple 30-minute nap can improve cognition (alertness) and help increase performance if used prior to competition.
Ponder Me This:
If you had to pay for sleep, how much would you pay, and how many hours would you buy? Ask teammates, family, friends and then question if you place enough value on your own sleep routines!
When posed this way, it can often cause as athlete to reconsider their sleep habits and routines. So, in the immortal voice of Samuel L. Jackson - Go the f**k to sleep!