Sleep and Sunlight:
Why Athletes Need To Prioritize Both
By Jim Carpentier, CSCS
Seeking that extra edge on and off the field in 2018? While improving dietary and exercise habits are common New Year resolutions, athletes and non-athletes should add two other essential resolutions: Ensuring they’re getting year-round adequate sleep and sunlight!
This article explains the multiple yet often underestimated benefits of sleep and sunlight – two basic needs – each of which can influence overall health, sports performance, recovery, muscle growth, fat-burning metabolism, and undesirable weight gain, weight loss or fat accumulation.
Sleep Recommendations
Heading to the gym, school, or work with insufficient sleep can backfire. According to University of California-San Francisco sleep expert Cheri Mah, “For elite athletes, we recommend eight to 10 hours plus every night. For the everyday person, you’ve got to hit at least seven hours of rest every night. There are individual differences in daily sleep needs, however, you may need eight hours or nine-plus hours to feel rested and alert throughout the day.”
Mah also noted that longer sleep periods resulted in faster sprint times and shooting accuracy the next day during her study on college basketball players.1, 2
Unconvinced? From NHL teams to NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball organizations, staff health professionals are touting the value of sleep to their athletes. Listen to Casey Smith, Dallas Mavericks Head Athletic Trainer: “If you told an athlete you had a treatment that would reduce the chemicals associated with stress; that would naturally increase human growth hormone; enhances recovery rate; and improves performance, they would all do it. Sleep does all of those things.”4 And Seattle Seahawks Director of Player Health and Performance Sam Ramsden really drives home the point: “We’re teaching our players sleep is a weapon.”5
Dangers of Sleep Deprivation
Sleep deprivation causes physical and mental fatigue so athletes are more prone to diminished alertness and reaction time causing lackluster sports skills, poor workouts, increased injury risk, irritability, reduced recovery from workouts and sports, and a greater susceptibility to colds and flu. And no athlete wants to be sidelined due to injury or illness! A University of California study found that injuries among youth athletes increased during games for those who slept fewer than six hours the previous night. 6, 7
And another negative when sleep deprived: Just 30 minutes of sleep loss can cause unnecessary weight gain, according to Michael Breus, Ph.D., a sleep specialist and author of The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan: Lose Weight Through Better Sleep (2011, Rodale Books). He says that “the more sleep-deprived you are, the higher your levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which increases your appetite.”7
Productive Sleep Tips
Like a cell phone requiring re-charging, think of restorative sleep as recharging your “battery” so you are energized for peak mental and physical performance the next day. Follow these general sleep guidelines:
• Hit the sack around the same time every night (including weekends) and awaken about the same time each morning adapting your body to regular sleep cycles.
• Keep the bedroom cool, dark and noise-free.
• Change the pillow or mattress if necessary to better support the neck and back to prevent stiffness.
• Also for proper spinal alignment, if sleeping on your side, place another pillow between your knees. If sleeping on your back, position the pillow under the knees.
• Avoid heavy meals and caffeinated or alcoholic beverages before bedtime which could disrupt sleep.
• Taking a relaxing warm bath or shower before bed and/or having a light meal such as cereal and fruit may help falling asleep easier.
Sunlight
Particularly during the cooler winter months, athletes are involved with indoor sports such as basketball, wrestling, and hockey, as well as training inside weight rooms. Spending more time indoors means missing out on getting ample sunlight-promoting vitamin D outdoors that also optimizes recovery, immune system health, and helps build muscle via the natural release of vitamin D-boosting testosterone. As you’ll see, devoting more time in the great outdoors during daylight hours not only during the upcoming winter months but year-round renders similar health and performance-enhancing properties as the aforementioned sleep.