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Sleep, often the missing ingredient: Train, Sleep and Repeat
► Blink and you’ll miss the start of the year racing by; as usual many of us are experiencing fatigue and the start of niggles. It’s this time of year in the clinic that we start to see an influx in injuries with the return to club sport and as training starts to pick up.
► Like many of us at the clinic, you may have started the year with a mix of fitness and sporting aspirations, good intentions and health resolutions. We’ve hit the ground running working on improving general fitness, strength or specific sporting performance. Getting the right mix of training, nutrition, recovery, and a social life can feel like a constant juggling act.
► For active individuals one area that’s often neglected is sleep. For athletes there’s an increased injury risk of up to 65% for athletes sleeping less than 7 hours per night. For athletes, the demand on the body is higher and therefore individuals may need even up to 10 hours per night to meet their requirements. Importantly, adolescent athletes with poor sleep are at a high risk of injury as they typically already require more sleep than adults. Some studies even show that injuries occurred up to 1.7x more frequently in adolescents athletes who slept less than 8 hours on average.
► Unfortunately often due to heavy training loads, competition schedules, travel and late night sessions sleep is often a secondary concern.
The basics:
► It’s about a balance of quantity and quality of sleep that’s important. Most people will need 7-8 hrs at minimum to spend enough time in the different phases of sleep. To touch on the basics; during the night we go through 5 sleep cycles. These last for about 90 minutes each; within each cycle there are different stages. These stages each have varying levels of consciousness and activity of the brain and body. It’s in the deeper stages where our body does most recovery. Hormones like growth hormone and melatonin are produced during these stages are essential for muscle and bone repair , breaking down fat tissue, reducing inflammation and keeping the immune system strong. Key parts of the neurological system also recover whilst we sleep; for the athlete this is crucial in quick decision making , reaction times and memory.
Therefore, it's crucial that athletes spend enough time in each phase to allow the body’s systems to recover well and meet the performance demands of the next session. The consensus is that an improvement in the quality and quantity of sleep will help shorten recovery times from training and games.
Check in with your sleep
► There are a number of different self screening tools available for athletes to check in with sleep behaviors. The Pittsburg Competitive Exercise Questionnaire is one tool that can help pinpoint problem areas to work on.
Follow this link to find out more: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55b7ffebe4b0568a75e3316b/t/5faaaf9fabff00237eaec8b2/1605021600178/ASSQ+tool+and+scoring.pdf
Some practical tips:
1. Regular routine:
Where possible establish a consistent wake and bed time. This has been shown to improve sleep quality. This may also mean that allowing more sleep time following heavy training sessions and building that into your routine.
2. Find your right amount:
Sounds simple and some experimenting may be required- but athletes should sleep however long it takes them the next day to feel aware and awake.
3. Get a good pre- bed routine:
This should involve avoiding screen-time/ phones at least 30 mins prior to sleeping. Blue light emitted by these devices can interfere with the release of melatonin which helps to regulate our sleep cycles and hence our recovery. Melatonin release is triggered by darkness so having a cooler dark place to sleep is essential.
4. Engage in proper post exercise recovery:
This may include cold water submersion, compression garments or massage to prevent in post. workout soreness which will aid in a better night’s sleep.
5. Nap when needed:
If you’re struggling to get a good amount or quality of sleep then naps can help. Studies have shown napping up to 30 mins can help to enhance motor and cognitive functions. However, athletes need to factor in sufficient wake up time to feel physically and mentally aware before performing.
References:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00368504231206265?icid=int.sj-full-text.similar-articles.1
Author: Liam Hanna, Physiotherapist (B. Phty)