Tag Archive: spatial

1. The #1 Recovery Supplement

   13th May 2014 8:33 am 2 Comments

   As you can see from the picture, if it was sold in a can, marketed and advertised in all the health and sport magazines, this would be much more talked about.

   Instead, it is free, so no one makes any money from it. It also requires some good habits and that other free supplement (self discipline) to ensure that you get a good night’s rest.
   There are many reasons why sleep is not easily available:

   • environment
   • new babies
   • poor diet
   • hard evening training sessions
   • caffeine
   • stress
   • anxiety

   and these require attention and sometimes outside help to improve these areas.

   But simply staying up late to play computer games, sit on facebook for hours at a time or going out nightclubbing are not good reasons to forgo sleep.

   Similarly, all the supplements, special clothes and extra massages, will not help recovery without sleep.

   Just because it is free doesn’t make it any less worthwhile. Shakespeare called it “Tired nature’s sweet restorer” and you can’t argue with that.

   Thanks to Brian Ellicott for the picture

2. Do we need sleep?

   21st January 2014 2:41 pm Leave a Comment

   There is still no real explanation of why we need sleep.

   As you arrive at work on Monday morning tired, are you thinking I didn’t get enough sleep this weekend?

   How much sleep is enough? Is it best to have one big sleep, or lots of little ones?

   A report in the current issue of New scientist (2647) looks at research on sleep in mammals and tries to extrapolate from their behaviours why we may need sleep. Unfortunately there is still no real understanding of why we need it. It doesn’t appear to make sense from an evolutionary point of view- why do giraffes only need 3 hours a day, but lions need 12- 14 hours?

   One lecture at the R.I. I went to on sleep explained how sleep is necessary for cognitive recovery, but that simply doing nothing is enough for physical recovery.

   That makes the afternoon nap important as it allows for your brain to recover from the activity of the day so far, process the information, and then you wake up being better able to focus on what needs to be done.

   I know that being chronically sleep deprived (thanks to my daughter) does mean that I am less able to concentrate on cognitive tasks. You may experience this as a result of work or exam deadlines.

   In the short term you may get by, but over a period of weeks or months, you will suffer from a performance slump. The most sustainable way is to have good quality sleep, with a short nap when you need a break. Unfortunately this may be frowned upon in the UK as slacking, or not driving the Protestant work ethic forward.

   Further reading

   • Effect of acute sleep deprivation 
   • How much sleep do I need after training?

    

    

3. Sleep- How much should I be getting?

   2:12 pm 3 Comments

   In almost every training book, manual or Coaching handout, sleep is covered as a topic very briefly: “the athlete should get 7-9 hours sleep a night” is about the norm, then the author moves on.

   In my experience assuming that young athletes get enough sleep (and eat properly) is an assumption too far. Instead, poor lifestyle choices, nutrition habits and too much internet \ gaming time lead to poor sleep in a lot of people.

   Inadequate sleep and nutrition prevent proper adaptation to training programmes- it is interesting in that almost all research that sports scientists quote as proving training method X, the quality and quantity of the rest is not measured or recorded.

   Sleep is individual (for me 6-7 hours solid is enough, however illusory that has been over the last 3 years with the kids) some need more, but whatever it is, having more than 3 nights of disturbed sleep should lead to a lay off in your usual training loads.

   I wouldn’t say abstain from training, but generally it is a good idea to work on low level aerobic work and avoid high intensity intervals or loads to allow your homeostasis to be restored.  Do this for 2-3 days until your normal sleep patterns resume, disrupted sleep can be a sign of too much training of one type.

   Read our full guide on sleep for athletes.