How Sleep Can Help Sport & Fitness Performance

Getting good sleep is as essential to training and performance as the right diet and the right kit...

And yet the importance of getting a good night’s sleep, whether for a specific sporting event like a marathon or triathlon, or simply when completing your daily exercise regime, is often one of the very last considerations.

Ensuring the right amount of sleep each night can enhance your sporting performance dramatically; while not taking care of your sleep patterns can actually have a negative effect.

Extensive research has been carried into the exact impact sleep has on performance, with the conclusion being that extra sleep gained over several weeks of training greatly improves performance on four separate measures: speed, accuracy, mood and alertness.

How much sleep is needed when you're in training?

Athletes in training need more sleep than normal, in the same way they consume more calories when exercising. You’re burning more, so you need to replace more…

You need more sleep because stress and exertion is being applied to the body and it’s during sleep hours that the body recovers and repairs any damage that may have occurred, keeping the body in the fittest state it can possibly be in.

You should try to get an extra hour’s sleep a night when you’re in training, as just this small amount of time can have a marked impact on performance. It can be obtained preferably by going to bed an hour earlier, but it can also be achieved by having an afternoon nap, if possible.

How does sleep deprivation affect your performance?

Reduced Energy Levels

If you’re being very active during the day but aren’t getting enough sleep, you’ll find that you suffer from reduced energy levels, and this will only get worse if you don’t take time to allow your body to rest and recover.

This is because the body’s ability to store glycogen goes hand in hand with the amount of sleep being obtained. If you’re not getting enough sleep, there will be too little glycogen stored within your body to be converted to energy when you need it most.

The less energy one has, the lower the stamina and speed will be, and the worse one's decision-making will be.

Sharpness of Decision-making

Sleep also serves as a key element in cognitive restoration, the process by which your brain recovers from mental fatigue.

The brain can only concentrate for a certain period of time without until it needs recharged, so this is essential because if you are not getting enough sleep, your split-second decisions will be less accurate, which can have a great impact on performance, especially in contact or coordination sports.

Repairing the body

Lastly, it is during sleep that levels of the important growth hormone, somatropin, are increased and it is this hormone that is responsible for repair.

Sleep deprivation, on the other hand, causes levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, to increase.

Thus, when not getting enough sleep, the levels of the growth hormone in the body are lowered and the level of stress hormone is increased, meaning repair and healing will take that much longer and the risk of injuries will be greatly increased.

What steps can be taken to improve quality of sleep?

As important as it is to rack up sleep hours, the quality of sleep is of equal, if not greater, importance since slow-wave (deep, or REM) sleep is the most restorative phase of sleep.

This type of sleep is only reached through pure comfort, the right body temperature and a lack of distractions.

We always advise making sure the room is dark and cool when getting into bed and would advise against drinking caffeine after 5pm, even if you think you are unaffected by it.

We also advise reading or listening to calming music in bed before going to sleep in order to take the everyday worries off your mind, along with relieving the bladder so that there are no natural physical distractions during sleep.

It's also worth investing in a good quality supportive mattress that respects the posture of your spine, lets your body breathe, keeps you at the right temperature, and is free from pressure points that may interrupt your sleep.

An old mattress that has you tossing and turning is not going to give you the deep sleep you need, and it also won't ease away the pain you've inflicted on your aching joints and muscles.

Dormeo's Octaspring mattresses and pillows have the advantages of memory foam, in that they mould to and support your body’s natural posture, and there are no pressure points; and the spring-like structure reduces the heat and humidity caused by traditional memory foam since air can pass through the mattress easily.

In fact it has been proven that Octaspring mattresses have 8x better ventilation than traditional memory foam mattresses.

Nike Matanza, Triathlete says:

“Quality sleep is one of the most important parts of our training. We train hard, we eat well and we need to recover as well. Bed is where recovery happens. Uncomfortable bed = sleepless nights and achy body in the morning. Slow recovery /not sufficient recovery potentially means injuries, fatigue, burn out…

Every single triathlete should have a proper bed, just like we need a properly fitted bike and the most appropriate running shoes.”

Whether looking fitter and healthier is your aim, or if you want to shave a few precious seconds off your times, Dormeo's range of high performance Octaspring mattresses can help you achieve these sporting ambitions.