Mental Health Performance - The Connection Between Athletes, Sleep & Sport Outcomes
About the Author
Ben Foodman is a licensed psychotherapist & performance specialist. He owns his private practice located in Charlotte North Carolina where he specializes in working with athletes to help them overcome mental blocks (the yips), PTSD, ADD / ADHD and achieve flow states through the techniques of Brainspotting & Neurofeedback. If you are interested in services, use the link here! Enjoy the article below!
Athletes, Sleep & Peak Mental Performance
I am fortunate to be able to work with some of the world’s most elite athletes. It is true that athletes do have an incredible sense of how to move their bodies and create world-class performances through their athletic gifts. But interestingly what I find is that while athletes know a lot about how their bodies work, there are other areas where they have a very poor understanding of their own health. Surprisingly, one specific area where the vast majority of athletes could significantly improve is through their sleep performance routines.
Because sleep is such a vital part of athlete performance, I thought it would be important to review the benefits that athletes can accrue from having healthy sleep routines. For this issue of the Training Report we will first review the benefits during sleep which are relevant towards athletic performances. We will then explore some of the known neuroscience behind sleep, and finally we will review sleep routines that athletes should consider integrating into their daily routines. Let’s first review the benefits of high quality sleep for athletes.
Athletes, Sport Performance Demands & Recovery
The demands of being an athlete have never been higher. Communities and organizations invest millions if not billions into integrating sports into society at large. As such athletes that compete at all levels carry high levels of expectations and have to frequently engage in high quantities of high intensity sports performances. Right or wrong, the demands of the performance environment can, and will take a heavy toll on athletes. Because of this athletes need to find many creative ways to speed up recovery. But sleep is by far the greatest recovery method athletes can use to accomplish this.
For instance, in regards to memory, individuals who experience high quality sleep are able to revitalize their capability to make new memories, and also consolidate newly learned material so that they do not forget this information. This is especially important for elite performers and athletes because these individuals are constantly learning and memorizing new material to help improve their craft (play calls, playing music). Other benefits athletes can get from high quality sleep include but are not limited to improvement in motor learning and functioning as well as our ability to heal and reduce the likelihood of injury. So what is happening in the brain during sleep that promotes these benefits?
The Neuroscience Behind Athletes & Sleep
There is so much about the neuroscience of sleep that is unknown. But from what we have discovered thus far, we know that sleep is imperative to our survival and overall development. There is no way for me to cover everything about sleep, but there are some interesting neuroscience tidbits we can focus on. In the book Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker gives us invaluable insight: The human body in many ways is a type of clock. Within this clock is a structure that helps regulate our sleep cycles known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus. The suprachiasmatic nucleus is a bilateral structure located in the anterior part of the hypothalamus and is the central pacemaker of our circadian clock which facilitates most of our internal clock systems (there are secondary systems in place but for now we will primarily focus on this structure).
This structure is one critical aspect that helps us regulate our sleep patterns, such as our ability to stay alert and operational during the day and ‘wind down’ in the evening. In addition to the structures in our body and brain that regulate sleep, there are other important processes that contribute as well. As soon as we wake up from sleep, our body begins to build up with a chemical called adenosine, and the longer the day goes on the more adenosine we build up. Once we begin nearing the end of our day, the adenosine buildup which is referred to as ‘sleep pressure’ provides us with the sensation of wanting to fall asleep. Thus when we are asleep, our brain and body use this time to reduce the levels of adenosine buildup providing us with the sensation of wakefulness after sleeping (assuming we have had a good night of sleep).
Athlete Considerations For Sleep Performance & Brainspotting
Based on my conversations with elite athletes, psychiatrists, sport psychologists, and other experts within the field of human performance enhancement, there are several immediate strategies that athletes can use to enhance their sleep performance:
Reduce technology use before bed - This is the most obvious strategy, yet one of the most difficult for athletes to self-impose. But research strongly suggests reducing exposure to blue light and technology anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours before bed.
Wear Blue-light filter glasses - Because many athletes have trouble with suggestion number 1, I often recommend wearing blue-light filter glasses to at least help offset the amount of light that your brain consumes before bed.
Reduce caffeine consumption - Caffeine has a half-life between 5 to 9.5 hours. Because it is probably better to assume a longer half-life, try to cut out caffeine consumption early in the afternoon to offset any potential problems with going to sleep in the evening.
Remove visible clocks from bedroom - If athletes get up in the middle of the night, one of the most common things they will do is check what time it is. To reduce information processing, just set an alarm and wake up to that. Knowing how much time you have won’t help.
Participate in regular trauma-informed therapy - Because sports participation literally induces stress on the body, this can be traumatic in many ways and potentially negatively impact sleep. Regularly engaging in trauma-informed therapy such as EMDR or Brainspotting can potentially help reduce issues with sleep.
Note To Reader:
If you are an athlete reading this segment of the TRAINING REPORT, hopefully this content was helpful! I put the Training Report together because I felt like many of the discussions on issues such as the Yips/mental blocks, strength training & other subject matter on athlete performance concepts were really missing the mark on these ideas (e.g. how trauma is the direct cause of the Yips). If you are interested in learning more, make sure to subscribe below for when I put out new content on issues related to sport psychology & athlete performance! Also, if you are looking to work with a mental performance specialist, you are in the right place! USE THIS LINK to reach out to me to see if my services are the right fit for your goals!
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