Good Night Moon, Good Morning Sun
Here is the thing, when it comes to active athletes in particular, if you have a bad night of sleep — we are talking getting anything less than optimal sleep — you are leaving results on the table with respect to health and performance. This is true no matter what kind of active recovery you do on your own during your sessions or how many hours you slept over the weekend to “make up for lost hours”. Your body doesn’t simply get back those hours of good sleep you missed two days ago when you stayed awake watching YouTube video tutorials, or scrolling on Instagram and TikTok on your phone. Just because you got an extra couple of hours sleep one day does not mean you are back to full sleep.
Think about it on the days you don’t sleep well and you still go train and dance, the progress and benefits your body could have during your training sessions are diminished simply because you didn’t get regular optimal sleep. Now having said this, think of your recovery needs nowadays that you are not as active vs when you are in rehearsals preparing for a show vs when you are in the middle of tours and show runs. There is an exponential increase in demand on your body’s recovery needs one from the other, however more often than not what we see is athletes and artists keeping their time and methods allotted for recovery untouched. What is worse though is that most times our recovery routines are the first aspect of training to be compromised and replaced by antagonist habits.
Generally, Health as a concept is comprised of 3 main categories: nutrition, exercise, and recovery (sleep being a big portion of that).
It doesn’t take a lot of research and quantifying data to come to a conclusion that when it comes to athletes and human performance in general if we look at how we behave after a night of poor sleep more than likely we will notice these kinds of behavior:
Headaches
Irritability
Cravings
Low Mental Clarity
Low Reaction Times
Overall feeling unwell
However, for the sake of a more scientific argument If we are to look at some of the data behind sleep studies done over the years what we will see is an overwhelmingly clear relationship between sleep/recovery and:
Mental Performance
Strength and Power
Body Composition
Mental Focus
Mortality Rate
Skin
Immunity
Aerobic Capacity
Injuries
Data ultimately points out that sleep can behave as either an enhancer or a diluter of human performance and body composition. When sleep deprived you are more likely to hold on to fat than to shed muscle. that is because sleep deprivation causes more cravings due to the imbalance of the hormones that regulate your appetite, which is why you are more prone to eat take-out or give in to cravings you would not otherwise on a regular day.
Sleep nurtures recovery — Recovery yields adaptation — Adaptation yields results
Nick Lambe - The Online Sleep Coach Summit
And while sleep routines are habit based, meaning our habits during the day and before going to sleep will affect our sleep an easy way to take a step in the right direction is by taking back control of your bed routine and your waking up routine.
Before Bed
Our bodies are most effective under a consistent routine. Try this:
Pick a time you can reasonably go to bed by and work backwards. If you need to be in bed by 10pm then all your nightly chores should be done by the time 10pm comes around not start at 10pm.
Turn off all electronics (at least put your phone on night mode) an hour to 30mins before your set bed time.
Have a routine before going to bed that is always the same (take a shower, brush your teeth, wash your face drink a glass of water, go to the bathroom) this way your body will eventually recognize every time you begin this routine that it is time to shut things down and the day is over.
Be in bed 5-10mins before your set time and turn all blue lights off, but you can keep a reading light if needed.
Avoid eating meals or snacks right before going to bed. These will keep you awake as your body will be working on breaking those down rather than recovery.
How to make your mornings not feel like a drag...
Have a routine that sets you up mentally for the rest of the day. Similarly to going to sleep, your body will excel under a consistent routine. Waking up at the same time and having a progressive introduction to your morning can help your body and mind assimilate the day better.
Here are a few things that have helped change my mornings completely around:
Sunlight Alarm - no more iPhone manic mornings. I have a very dark room and having a lamp that simulates sunrise with the appropriate light sends my body the message that it is time to wake up.
Drink my protein shake before my coffee - I also like to mix it with water to ensure I have at least two glasses of water in the morning. I know myself and I have struggled in the past with not drinking enough water. So I like to incorporate it in my shake to make sure I start off on the right foot.
Stand in the sun/Expose my body to the sun - Similar to the Sunlight Alarm this further reinforces the message to my body that it is light outside and according to our circadian rhythms this is the time we are meant to be up and about.
Cup of coffee - I love my Cup of Coffee, can’t take that away.
Move — in my case I walk my dog for 30-45mins in the park.
Ultimately think of context and hierarchies — which of these apply to you and which are more foundational to your behavior.
Start with a couple of evening/morning habits that resonate with you and you know you can definitely do. See how you feel, adjust, then change/add another habit. Habits are one of the most challenges things to change so do not be discouraged if the first time you try it it doesn’t work. Instead try to understand why it didn’t work and adjust your goals or the method a little more. Perhaps the habit you chose isn’t as easy as you thought but there might be another one that you can definitely work on.
