Sports Performance
Sleep Like a Pro Athlete
Pro athletes are assumed it be a picture of health. They maintain a balanced diet full of vitamins and minerals, and they get regular physical activity through training and competition. Sleep disorders, however, remains a challenge in improving performance and is ignored by many coaches, trainers and even the players themselves.
Athletes are often stubborn about their own physical ailments. They can have a variety of sleep disorders—the most common is insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea. One of the main contributors of insomnia among athletes is traveling between time zones because of their intense schedules, games and training.
In addition, insomnia frequently affects athletes prior to a big competition. Anxiety about their upcoming performance can leave an athlete tossing and turning all night. This results in a decreased psychomotor vigilance—the alertness and ability to complete mental tasks. The insomnia also can be caused by pain and excessive physical exertion.
Another consequence of insomnia is a lowered threshold for pain. The less sleep athletes get, the worse their tolerance for pain in training and competition. In some cases, insomnia is a sign of overtraining, particularly when athletes' nerve systems are affected. The best remedy for insomnia in this case is to reduce the amount and intensity of the training for a period of time.
Sleep apnea, once thought to be a relatively rare disorder limited to middle-aged or older men, is widespread and affects people who appear to be otherwise healthy. Aside from insomnia, athletes—particularly football players, wrestlers and weight lifters—are prone to sleep apnea because of their body size. Athletes with sleep apnea can experience fatigue or daytime sleepiness, depression, morning headaches, impotence, inefficiencies in metabolism, poor development of muscle mass, immune deficiencies, heart attack, stroke, diabetes and hypertension.
Not only do athletes need sleep to improve on their athletic skills, but the restoration that occurs within muscles during deep sleep is important. The biggest factor to help impact sleep is the athletes' room. Just like anyone else looking for good sleep, all of the same rules apply: low light, cool temperatures, and no distracting noise. The best athletes control and create a sleep environment that is personally the most comfortable for them. When it comes to good sleep all athletes can justify first class accommodations. The expense will pay out in increased performance.
Sleep Deprivation and Sports Performance
Logic would say that getting enough sleep is important for optimal sports performance, but there wasn’t much evidence to support this theory – until now. Some recent studies have found that sleep deprivation can slow glucose metabolism by as much as 30 to 40%.
Results showed that after a period of sleep deprivation the 11 men in the study metabolized glucose less effectively and their levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) were found to be higher. Both these physical reactions have been linked to memory impairment, age-related insulin resistance and impaired recovery in athletes.
The alternation of adaptation and recovery is what takes an athlete to a higher level of fitness. High-level athletes need to realize that the greater the training intensity and effort, the greater the need for planned recovery.
That planned recovery can involve a full nights rest or a short nap.
---from Sleep Deprivation Can Hinder Sports Performance by Elizabeth Quinn
