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SLEEP IS TRAINING
Rest and sleep are part of training. If you choose to say “I can do more and I will” you are skipping out on important parts of your training. Recovery happens during sleep and rest. If you don’t give time for this to happen, you won’t get better.
Practice hard during practice – you don’t need to go home and practice more. You don’t need to do extra. This leads to injury or frustration
Become a champion of sleep! Get your work done in school, ask questions, don’t stay up until 11pm doing school work. This means you are inefficient with your time.
If you want to learn more about the importance of sleep, I highly recommend you read the book “Why We Sleep” by Dr. Matthew Walker. Dr. Walker is the director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. A couple of quotes from Dr. Walker’s book regarding sleep that real drive home the importance of sleep:
· “Sleep is the world’s greatest, legal, performance enhancing drug”
· “Obtain anything less than 8 hours of sleep a night, and especially less than 6 hours a night, and the following happens: time to physical exhaustion drops by 10 to 30 percent, and aerobic output is significantly reduced”
o Think about what this quote means for a distance runner! Especially its impact on training and racing!
· ”Sleep accelerates physical recovery from common inflammation, stimulates muscle repair, and helps restock cellular energy in the form of glucose and glycogen”
· “A tired brain reverts to a primitive pattern of uncontrolled reactivity. We have inappropriate emotional reactions, and we are unable to place events into a broader or considered context.”
· We often dismiss behavior like this as “they are just a teenager.” Would it be better to recognize the underlying cause and focus on promoting better sleep habits.
· “The longer we stay in a state of insufficient sleep, the longer we stay in some degree of the fight-or-flight state of mind” (In other words, you are feeling some degree of anxiousness.)
Dr. Walker shares the following tips for improving your sleep:
• Follow a regular sleep schedule, including the weekends!
• Avoid Exercise 3hours before bed time!
• No naps after 4 pm!
• Avoid caffeine after lunch!
• Stay away from electronics (phone, TV, computer screen, etc.) at least 90 mins before going to bed!
• Upgrade your sleeping environment:
o Black out curtains
o Cooler temp
o Regularly wash your sheets
o Remove electronics
• Wind down with a bedtime routine:
o Prepare of the next day
o Read a book
o Listen to music
o Journal
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