How to Improve Performance With Better Sleep

Sleep is easily the most underrated aspect of health and is oftentimes an overlooked component in both the fitness and healthcare industries. Lately, however, the importance and benefits of sleep are becoming more mainstream and it has even been called the greatest performance enhancer with the ability to improve your performance by 30%. That’s huge!

One thing we are also seeing is that it’s not just MORE sleep that people need but actually sleep QUALITY. We should all be aiming for 7-9 hours of sleep per night but if you are tossing and turning all night and not getting quality sleep, then it doesn’t matter how long you are in bed.

Sleep quality and sleep density are what we should be aiming to improve. But how do we do that? Luckily there are some quick and simple things that you can do tonight to help get your sleep on track.

Set a routine

The first thing we need to do is set up a routine just like you do with your kids. You know, bath time, pajamas, tuck them in, read them a book. All of these things trigger a response in their brains telling them it is time to calm down and get ready for bed. It’s the same thing with us, it’s just going to look a little different.

As a part of this, we need to make sure our exercise, stress, and nutrition are all on point as well. As such, caffeine and alcohol both affect sleep quality. Caffeine is a stimulant and will keep us awake, tossing, and turning. Alcohol is a depressant and while people have often used this as a sleep aid, studies have shown that it actually keeps us out of the important REM sleep cycles. So we aren’t getting the deep, restorative sleep that we truly need.

Our routine is going to start with 8-10 minutes of soft tissue work. Take a foam roller or lacrosse ball and start rolling – it doesn’t matter where (quads, back, hamstrings, calves, etc). The reason we are doing this is because it provokes a parasympathetic response in us. This is the rest and digest mode of our autonomic nervous system (the opposite of sympathetic, aka fight or flight). This is going to prime us and get us ready to fully relax.

Practice good sleep hygiene

Keep your bedroom cool, somewhere around 62–68°F, and dark: blackout curtains do the most work here, and an eye mask is a good portable backup for travel. Point any alarm clock display away from the bed, and reach for a white noise machine or earplugs if outside sound is the issue. A warm bath before bed helps too; it raises blood flow to your hands and feet, which in turn cools your core temperature and nudges you toward sleepiness. Tart cherry juice, about an ounce twice a day, is a simple, natural way to support your body’s own melatonin.

Eliminate technology

This one is probably the hardest for most people. Keep the TV, tablet, and phone out of the bedroom if you can. If your phone has to be there, put it on night mode and face down. Turn screens off at least an hour before bed, and if you’re on one later than that, blue-light-blocking glasses or a screen filter help offset the effect blue light has on the hormones that regulate sleep.