Does Sleep Really Matter for Performance?

December 1, 2023

If you’re reading this article, the likelihood that you have heard of sleep as a pivotal foundation for performance is high. The research that has been conducted in the past 20 years surrounding sleep as a non-negotiable aspect of athletic performance and recovery, challenging the long-standing belief that sleep is inconsequential to human health. This article is dedicated to highlighting the impact of sleep on longevity and performance, and how you can optimize your sleep routine to harness the most of one of life’s greatest luxuries.

Sleep is the chief physician in the human body, governing the function of our muscular system, nervous system, and cellular energy systems. Sleep deprivation, for example, is associated with an increased likelihood of disease states like diabetes, Alzheimer’s, dementia, cancer, autoimmune conditions, and more!

From a primal perspective, we are diurnal creatures - we prefer to wake during the day, and sleep at night. The suprachiasmatic nucleus, located in the hypothalamus portion of the brain, allowed primal man to attune to the natural cycles of light + dark. From a biological perspective, the human body is designed to wake in the presence of full-spectrum, natural light, and fall into sleep in the presence of infrared light, which signals dusk. Yet, our modern lifestyle inundates us with the opposite of natural light frequencies, creating a constant barrage of artificial light that disrupts our body’s natural circadian rhythm.

In the proper setting, with proper sleep hygiene, the body naturally undergoes five different phases of healing during sleep, each lasting approximately 90 minutes. These phases include wakefulness, NREM sleep, and REM sleep, which stands for Non-Rapid Eye Movement and Rapid Eye Movement sleep.

Deep sleep (N4) & N-REM Stages 1-3 are highly correlated with physiological restore & repair. During these stages, growth hormone is released, muscle tension is alleviated, and cellular sensitivity to insulin is improved. Furthermore, deep sleep helps to download critical movement patterns to brain circuitry and catalogs them in the movement and pre-movement sectors of the brain.

REM sleep is characterized by relaxed muscles, quick eye movement, irregular breathing, elevated heart rate, and increased brain activity. REM sleep dominates later in our sleep cycle, as cortisol rises in the body, and is correlated with dreaming, memory consolidation, emotional processing, and brain development.

Athletic performance is highly correlated with sleep quality and duration. Key factors to performance such as reaction time, agility, accuracy, and more, are influenced by sleep quality. In a study of elite NCAA men’s and women’s swimming teams, it was found that improving sleep duration correlated with higher sprint speed, faster reaction off of the blocks, and more efficient turn around times at the end of each lap. Conversely, sleep deprivation contributes to decreases in athletic performance. A study of NBA athletes found that inadequate sleep contributed to a 37% increase in turnovers and 45% increase in fouls committed when the athlete received less than eight hours of sleep.

In order to optimize performance through healthy sleep habits, consider implementing the following principles into your morning and nightly routine to anchor your circadian rhythm and properly prepare the body for sleep.