The 24 Hour Athlete – Sleep Like a Pro

Just ask any west coast hockey team, frequent business traveler, or shift worker- sleep is essential to performance. The effect of sleep on performance is so dramatic that many professional athletes and teams actually hire sleep coaches to manage athletes’ pillow time and maximize their performance.

I never waste too much time in appointment before finding out how a patient or an athlete is sleeping. It is likely that any performance, focus, or fatigue issues will be resistant to treatment if sleep just isn’t right.

When I write a prescription for a patient it always contains the information on how much, when, and how to take the prescribed substance. Sleep is no different. In order to achieve restful, restorative sleep we really need to pay attention to not only how much we sleep (which is of course very important), but also to when we sleep, and how we sleep.

How Much

There is general agreement that 6-8 hours is an ideal amount of sleep. For athletes 6 hours is far too little, with the 8-hour target being the goal for an elite athlete. Not surprisingly studies have shown that if a regular 8-hour sleeper gets only 6 hours of sleep, the impact on performance is equivalent to a blood alcohol level of .05. If you have ever observed a beer league hockey game you can appreciate the decline in skill with even small increases in alcohol consumption!

When

It seems like we schedule every aspect of our lives in North America. Work, extracurricular activities, even family time has a habit of existing in predetermined time slots recorded in our smartphone calendars. Your sleep schedule should be just as well planned out as your weekly training sessions or business meetings. Consistency is vitally important when it comes to sleep. Our bodies follow a circadian rhythm, and function optimally when we fall asleep and wake up at the same time every day. Without getting too in-depth into physiology, our circadian rhythm can be understood by taking a look at two hormones, melatonin and cortisol.

Once the sun goes down we start to slowly increase our blood levels of melatonin. When melatonin levels pass a certain threshold we feel tired and are able to fall asleep. A few hours after falling asleep our cortisol levels begin to slowly rise. When cortisol peaks in the early morning we wake up. Hours of sleep when melatonin is high and cortisol is low are more restorative, and this is why you will often hear that each hour you are asleep before midnight counts as two hours when compared to the hours you are asleep after midnight.
Unfortunately the production of melatonin and cortisol in our body is anything but simple; there are a whole host of factors that influence both hormones which we will discuss in the “how”.

How

There is a term we use in the clinic frequently when discussing how patients sleep – sleep hygiene. This does not refer to pre-bed showers, clean fingernails, or properly laundered pajamas; rather it refers to the environment in which we sleep.

Lighting may be the most important aspect of sleep hygiene to address. Any exposure to light in the white to blue spectrum decreases levels of melatonin, causing less restorative sleep, and more difficultly falling and staying asleep. Strategies to decrease your light exposure and maximize your melatonin levels include using blackout curtains to completely eliminate outdoor sources of light such as street or yard lights, avoiding exposure to TV or computer screens 1 hour before bed, and making sure any alarm clocks or night lights are red in colour.

Temperature is another important aspect of sleep hygiene. Rooms should be kept on the cooler side, with available blankets or thermostat control to ensure a comfortable sleep environment.
Noise is one of the most common factors waking people from sleep. A simple fix to limit the obtrusiveness of external noise is to use a fan or white noise machine to mask external noises. Some individuals like to sleep with the TV on, which we absolutely DO NOT recommend. Not only can the light from the TV reduce melatonin production, but the variability in volume and noise production can prevent you from achieving a deep sleep.

The last two things to avoid are the snooze button and late night alcohol. It may feel pretty good to catch an extra five minutes of sleep, but avoiding the snooze button actually helps to better train our brains and solidify our circadian rhythms. And while alcohol may make it seem easier to sleep, as your alcohol levels decrease after you fall asleep it actually inhibits restful sleep and will leave you feeling less restored in the morning.

When you realize you sleep (or should sleep) for 1/3 of your life, it becomes pretty apparent how important sleep is to the 24-hour athlete. No matter how hard you train and how much attention you pay to your fueling strategy, without proper sleep you will not be able to achieve the level of performance you are capable of. So keep training hard, fuelling properly, and sleep well!

Dr. Brock McGregor BSc ND
Naturopathic Doctor
McGregor Naturopathic
www.mcgregornd.com

McGregor Naturopathic is located in Infinity Medical in Chatham. Brock deals with a wide variety of health conditions, and has advanced training in sports nutrition.