Getting quality sleep to improve your sporting personal best

With a fantastic summer of sport upon us and the Olympics in full swing, we caught up with Hypnos' resident sleep and wellbeing expert and TEAMGB sleep coach, Natalie Pennicotte-Collier to share some of her sleep tips to help you gain that ‘competitive edge’.

Whatever your sporting preference, whether you’re a golfer or runner, a professional athlete or those enjoying the occasional bit of sporting fun, taking sleep and recovery seriously can help you improve your overall sports performance.

Hypnos' resident sleep and wellbeing expert, Natalie Pennicotte-Collier works as a sleep coach with Team GB Athletes and has shared with us some fascinating insights about the links between sleep and sport. Here are her top tips and expert advice on how to get the best night’s sleep and why it’s so crucial to achieving your personal best:

"If you were to tell any athlete you had a new natural treatment which improves performance, reduces stress chemicals in the body, naturally increases the human growth hormone and enhances the rate of recovery, they would all pay attention! 

In the quest for athletic fitness and podium/champion finishes - the importance of your sleep health
cannot be overstated. Athletes, in particular, can harness the power of circadian rhythms and their
familiar sleep space to fuel their best performance.

Numerous studies show that athletes who increase their sleeping time from an average of 7-8 hrs to between 9-10 hours significantly improve speed and stamina in their sport. This is because sleep is a powerful natural performance enhancer for your mind and body. It’s the essential element for helping to increase energy, performance and stamina as well as mental agility and split-second intuitive decision-making, which can be hugely important in fast-paced games.

So what exactly does good sleep do for an athlete’s body and mind?

• Sleep helps to shape ‘muscle memory’ a form of procedural memory in which continued repetition of a body movement becomes automatic and perfectly ingrained in to your memory.
• It maintains and improves waking-state mental processing. This means that good and consistent sleep improves your cognitive brain alertness and function day after day.
• Good sleep also supports muscle growth and actively supports the mechanisms that store and restore energy in the muscles - in turn improving performance and of course aids the healing time of injury.
• It also restores energy in our brain cells – mental energy becomes depleted over the course of a day as the mind processes information and directs the body in our daily tasks.

But how do we get this kind of quality sleep?

Training schedules place significant demands on our time and body, with many athletes needing to train early in the morning or late at night. This is particularly true of amateur athletes who also have day jobs and family commitments to juggle.

When working with the GB Snowsport Athletes who were training for the Winter Games to help them prepare and get the best night’s sleep possible, I shared with them my Sleep and Recovery strategy - something you can try it at home too:

1. Begin to look at sleeping and recovery across a 24hr period, rather than just at night.
2. Plan in micro-naps throughout the 24 hours, and have days that are without physical exertion! Because the more sleep you can have the more it will help your sports performance.
3. Just like a pro athlete, commit to trying to fit in a couple of 9-10 hour sleep sessions each week (rather than the standard 7-8 hours most people get a night).
4. Establish a precise wind-down routine and morning ritual – crucial for handling mental pressure the night before a sporting event. Just taking 15 minutes every morning to meditate or doing exercises that are designed to help you relax and focus on your breathing can have a big impact on your mind and body, helping it to cope with stress and pressure.
5. Make sure you have the very best quality mattress, which is perfect for your comfort requirements and supports your body fully. Additionally, supportive pillows that you change regularly to ensure their performance in supporting your head and neck are an important consideration too. All these elements help to create an environment for the highest quality kind of sleep, with the least disturbance for the body.
6. Finally, just remember the powerful fact that sleep improves sports performance, so be sure to include it as an integral part of your training schedule.

Two Tips To Sleep Your Way To Success

Timing is Everything! Perfect your Daily Wellness with Circadian Support: Just as the maestro conducts an orchestra, managing optimal wellness in sync with your circadian rhythm fuels a stunning natural symphony of peak performance, optimal recovery, and improved wellbeing.

The realm of athletic performance is influenced significantly by the ebb and flow of our circadian rhythms. Discover the untapped potential that lies within syncing these natural biological cycles with our training schedules and the profound effects this can have on amplifying overall performance.

NAPS!: A 30 to 60-minute post-lunch nap has a beneficial effect on physical and cognitive performance, and reduces perceived fatigue. Sleep time and quality naps are game-changers! The speed and efficiency of this process are crucial for athletes who have to make split-second decisions during a game.

Reaction time is a fundamental aspect of athletic performance, encompassing the time it takes for an athlete to perceive a stimulus, process the information, and respond. The faster an athlete can react, the more time they have to analyze the situation and make the right decision. Interestingly, our bodies have a complex system to manage these reaction times.

By prioritizing sleep and striving for the right balance of duration and quality anyone, just like an athlete, can maintain their physical best and gain a competitive edge fuelling their everyday personal best."