Sleep Well and Win Regularly
Top professional athletes have been quoted talking about the relevance of sleep in their career. Sleep is vital, especially for recovery purposes. Conversely, some athletic trainers and other sports coaches neglect the need for sleep training. Luckily enough, some sleep coaches work with specific players to enhance their career through a comprehensive sleep assessment.
These coaches develop a schedule for the athletes and include 8 or more hours of undisturbed sleep time. Students in medical schools spend 4 hours learning about sleep. All this shows the relevance of sleep, especially in an athlete’s career. Keeping that in mind, here are five sleep-based rules, which every professional player should remember.
1. Sleep affects your game performance
In many cases, professional sports coaches point out that insufficient sleep will negatively affect various areas of the game. Some of the common areas impacted by sleep include the strength, performance, endurance, time management, decision making, and agility. A professional athlete should have an average sleep time of nine hours each night. If the player is sleep deprived, they will have a poor performance in the game.
2. It is part of training
As a professional player, you should value sleep training and deem it equally vital as any other type of training. Research was carried out on professional basketball players, and they showed better sprint time and throw-shooting when they added an hour to their night sleep time. Sleep training should be handled along with proper workouts and nutrition. Generally, sleep covers a third of the player’s daily routine.
3. Proper sleep affects clearance and concussion testing
Athletes that are sleep deprived are not recommended to get the baseline testing. This is because the lack of sleep will lead to an unfair baseline test since the cognitive skill set will be lower. Insufficient sleep will cause a premature clearance of the participant. This commonly happens with the high school and college players.
4. Sleep affects the injury therapy
Proper sleep is known to enhance recovery from games, workouts, injury, and traveling. As you sleep, most of the active muscles are repair and grow through the release of hormones. Suppose you do not get enough sleep, your testosterone level is reduced by about 15%. When the testosterone level is down, the overall activeness and muscle recovery will drop.
5. Scheduling/Traveling is relevant for player fatigue
Many players go through laborious travel schedule, which require prompt arrival and departure. All this entail exhausting trekking. If the player is not well prepared for the travel, the humidity might make them fatigued and dehydrated. The player can also be affected by the travel. The vibration of the airplane and other noises around can negatively affect them. Unless the player gets enough sleep after the long traveling hours, they might end up performing poorly. That is why a team might end up losing to the visitors if they travel back home from a long journey.
A lot of athletes needs proper assistance with their sleep schedules, especially when on the road. For that, as a professional athlete, always remember that an extra hour of sleep will boost your game performance. You can work with a reliable sleep coach to help you with sleep training.