Sleep 

In order to perform at your peak, you have to prepare in all aspects of your life and this means that you have to prioritise a good night’s sleep. Poor sleep habits can have a massively negative affect on your performance both physically and mentally. 

Why sleep is important 

For both swimmers and non swimmers, sleep is essential for overall health and wellbeing. Some of the physical benefits to sleep are: 

  • Allowing your body and brain to rest. While you sleep your body carries out important processes to repair your cells and tissues. This helps your body to recover after training and racing. 
  • Boosting your immune system. While you sleep your body produces hormones that help the immune system to fight off infection, which can prevent illness or help you recover faster from illness. 

All of these restorative benefits are essential to your recovery and performance. There are also mental benefits to sleep: 

  • Sleeping helps you to retain and consolidate your memories. When you train, race or learn new skills, sleep helps form the memories you need to improve in the future. If you didn’t sleep, the pathways in your brain that allow you to learn or make memories couldn’t be formed or maintained. 
  • Sleep is also essential for cognitive processing. Loss of sleep is associated with a decline in mental function. This can impair your ability to react to stimulus, concentrate during racing and training or notice adverse changes in your technique. 
  • Finally, sleep is important for maintaining your mental health. Good quality sleep is associated with improving your mood. A healthy sleep routine can help to prevent irritability and decrease the risk of mental health conditions such as depression.

Sleep routine tips 

A good and consistent sleep routine is important for everyone to sleep well. The best ways to achieve this are: 

  • Create a good sleep environment. Your sleeping space should be dark and comfortable with as little noise or disturbance as possible. 
  • Avoid alcoholic and caffeinated beverages close to sleep. These drinks can interrupt your sleep by reducing the amount of time your body spends in restful sleep. Caffeine can have an effect up to 6 hrs after consumption so always consider this before you take it. 
  • Stay away from electronics right before trying to sleep. This includes TVs, phones, tablets, games consoles and computers to name a few. The blue light emitted from devices like these can affect your circadian rhythm (internal body clock) and therefore impact your ability to fall asleep. 
  • Have a bedtime routine to help you wind down from your day. Try reading or meditating to relax your body and mind in preparation for sleep. 
  • If you have been struggling to get to sleep for more than 20 minutes then try getting out of bed and do a quiet activity in a different space such as reading or gentle stretching until you feel sleepy. 
  • Naps can be useful if your body needs a bit of extra recovery or you have had a tough morning session but try to keep them under an hour and try not to nap after 3pm as it can affect your ability to fall asleep come bedtime. 
  • Reduce stressors in your life. We know this can be hard as being a swimmer isn’t exactly stress free but try to remove any external stressors that are within your control. Stress can have a really negative effect on sleep quality and your overall performance so do what you can to reduce it. 

Consistent restful sleep is the basis on which you can complete a rigorous training programme and compete at your very best.