How elite athletes get the best night’s sleep

After being in the sleep industry for over 30 years, it’s always been clear how important sleep is to our wellbeing and yet is still taken very much for granted. One recent research study - for example - revealed that poor quality sleep increases the risk of an early death by 12%. The risk of stroke, obesity, diabetes, memory loss, osteoporosis, cardiac disease, accidents, and a reduced resilience to stress are all increased. At the same time, poor sleep hygiene will reduce alertness, awareness, mood, motivation, decision-making and stamina.

Written by Nick Littlehales, Sports Sleep Coach

So, the message driven by the demands of the global 24/7 world of today has never been clearer; sleep is vital to your health and wellbeing now and for the future/.

The modern-day athlete is driven to reach higher levels of performance, pushing hard every day. This is fine as long as a clear recovery plan is adopted, along with the understanding that, in this 24/7, technology influenced world, there are new outside influences that require a redefined approach mentally and physically.

This also applies to everyone else not just athletes. Poor sleep quality has never been so evident than today, due to a general lack of education, awareness and application. Poor recovery reduces work ethic, enthusiasm, mood, motivation, alertness, awareness, decision-making, anger management, and is clearly linked to a negative mindset leading to anxiety and depression.

A frequent question that I am often asked is, does sleeping longer unlock better quality sleep? Well there is no doubt that in any 24-hour period we should allocate around 33% of that time to sleep (eight hours). However this is not achievable orrealistic for everyone, and some can survive on less.

After working with elite athletes for over 17 years, I was able to develop a profiling tool focused on maximising mental and physical sleep recovery, called the R90 Technique. Its principle purpose is to educate and raise awareness around what I believe are the seven key sleep recovery indicators (KSRIs). One of which is being more aware of the Circadian Rhythms in everyday and its impact on us as humans.

Another is knowing our Chronotype which prevents us from adopting routines that are counterproductive against our natural recovery characteristics and minimise the effects when out of our control. In zoology, the word Chronotype refers to the sleep timings and regular activities of an animal. Nocturnal animals are active at night, for instance. Humans are diurnal – active in the day, sleep at night. However, Chronotype also determines whether we are morning active, rising early and at our best during the first half of the day or night active, sleep later and at our best during evenings and later at night.

A sleeping leopard seal, an animal capable of sleeping on land and in water

These KSRIs are underpinned by building a sleep wake routine based on 90 minute cycles rather than hours. 90 minutes is a period used to measure sleep under clinical conditions, so it’s relevant and provides a set of timings enabling athletes and coaches to plan ahead with more confidence. So, rather than just sleeping at night (monophasic) and targeting eight hours, we will either target five cycles (7.5 hours) or four cycles (6 hours) in every 24 hours. This then becomes 35 or 28 cycles over seven days.

We then use a 30 minute shorter controlled recovery period (CRP) or nap, to take advantage of the two other natural recovery windows between 13:00 & 15:00 and early evening between 17:00 & 19:00. So in any 24 hour period the athlete will create a sleep wake cycle plan that can cope with their demanding schedules but maintain sustainable recovery. So a weekly 35 cycle routine might actually be made up of 30 90-minute and five 30-minute cycles.

Referred to as a Polyphasic rather than Monophasic approach, the next step is to have a clear pre-sleep process, moving from light to dark, warm to cool, mental download, tech shutdown, non-stimulating and sleep mindset activities. And a natural daylight wake, hydrate, fuel up, simple mental challenges, exercise and delayed tech check in.

With this in place we can now identify everything we do from the point of waking up that can influence the quality of our sleep later. A great starting point is to think 'take a break' from what you are focused on at that time every 90 minutes, just for a few minutes combined with longer periods to fuel up. Ideally outside in daylight. A simple pre-sleep technique helps the brain process the higher levels of information and mental activity we are exposed to.

When I get asked the question ‘What is your top tip Nick?’, they are not surprised to learn that it’s to stop worrying about it. There is no such thing as a perfect night's sleep.

Nick Littlehales talks with novelist AL Kennedy about sleep during Prom 40: Brahms, Berg, Larcher and Schumann

Find out more about Nick Littlehales