One in three adults does not get enough sleep. It is no secret that endurance athletes care about their bodies, about their performance and about feeling good when they exercise. What are we doing if this is true? How can we answer the question “why do we not feel good” or “why was our session bad?” The answer may not be in the tub of protein powder but rather the place we rest our heads.
When was the last night you slept for 9-10 hours? It may be time to reconsider your sleep schedule if you’re laughing or scratching the back of your head, because it’s been years since it happened. Adults should aim to sleep 7-9 hours a night. Athletes are advised to sleep 9-10 hours. Although it would be great to achieve these goals, this is not always possible. You are busy with your family, career, training and other obligations. You may not prioritize getting 10 hours of rest. Many endurance athletes have training that begins before sunrise, so they would need to go to bed at 7 or 8pm to meet this goal. That’s probably not going to happen. Sleeping patterns are affected by early training, travel, altitude, time zone changes, and more.
Have you ever tried to track your sleep before? We can now track our sleep patterns with the help of wearable technology, such as the RIVAL Sports Watch. It is important to know how much sleep we get, but it is also important to be able see what happens while we sleep. Were we “awake” for longer than we thought? Do we spend the majority of our sleep time in REM? These data points will help us understand what happens when we close our eyes. They can also help us better understand the reasons why training today or this week has been hit-and-miss. Maybe it will answer the question, “I’m not sure why I am so tired!”
We can take actionable steps to improve our health and performance when we have access to the data. Imagine this as a bike power test: you start a training program and need a starting place. You’re in the dark without this starting point. We can then build a plan to help us reach our ultimate goal once we know where we’re starting from. Tracking sleep follows the same logic. We can implement strategies for better sleep once we understand the metrics.
Understanding sleep and the processes that occur while we sleep will help us understand the importance of this tool for recovery. We have already discussed how lack of sleep can affect our training. But it affects so much more than endurance activities. Reduced sleep can lead to cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes, high blood-pressure, and a weakened immune system. Lack of sleep can affect us mentally as well as physically. Reduced sleep is linked to depression, irritability and mood disorders. Take a look at what happens when we finally close our eyes for sleep.
Stages of sleep
Deep Sleep
This is the body’s mode of repair. This is the stage where we rejuvenate and restore from our day’s activities. Deep sleep can help with:
-muscles grow
-immune system refreshes
-increasing our immune defense
Brain activity recovery
Blood pressure decreases
Reduced breathing rate
Heart rate decrease
Adults require around 15-20% to sleep deeply. If you sleep 7 hours then around 60-90 mins of that time should be spent in deep sleep. These stages occur throughout the night, but are usually early in the evening.
Sleep REM
Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep is when we dream. Although some people may claim that they don’t dream or cannot remember their dreams, this is the stage when we consolidate our memories and process emotions. It is important to process stress during this stage of sleep. Stress can be both mental and physical. Stress, as we all know, increases the hormone cortisol. REM sleep starts about 90 minutes after falling asleep, and accounts for 20-25% our total sleep. Using the same example, 90-120 minutes would be REM sleep for a 7 hour sleep. During REM, cortisol levels decrease. This is crucial for restoring our body to homeostasis. Insufficient REM sleep can leave us in a state of heightened arousal. Combine this with the increasing physical stress of training and we’re on the edge between illness and injury.
Light Sleep
The transitional stage is the final stage of sleep. It’s called light sleep. While sleeping, you alternate between the three stages of sleep. This stage of light sleeping accounts for approximately 50% of the total time you spend asleep. Even very brief moments of awakening can occur that you will not remember. You have a “burst of awakening” between 5-20 times on average. Although light sleep may seem to be a relatively short period, it is a vital part of the sleep cycle. We cannot move on to the next two stages without it.
Listening to Metrics
Wearable devices can track sleep cycles, heart rate and heart rate variability. While using the RIVAL Watch alongside the ELEMENT companion App, you can track your sleep metrics.
Your RIVAL will upload biometric data to your ELEMENT Companion app as you sleep. The following sleep stages will be displayed:
Awake
Light Sleep
Deep Sleep
Sleep REM
You will be able view your nightly sleep breakdown once your sleep has been uploaded. You can view the total duration of your sleep, as well as how much time you spent in each stage. All this information is displayed along with a timestamp. After you’ve started to record your sleep consistently, you can start viewing weekly trends and totals.
A sleep tracker will help you to not only see trends but also understand why certain days you feel a little sluggish in comparison to other days.
What can you do now that you know the metrics? You may need to change your nighttime routine if you notice you are awake for a majority of time at the beginning of the sleep cycle. Do you spend a lot of time on a screen before going to bed? You may be reading a book that is so captivating you can’t put it down. Or perhaps you have had a stressful and difficult day. Pay attention to your own way of winding down. This will help you improve the time it takes to fall asleep. Here are some additional tips that will help you improve your sleep quality, and thus quantity.
You can also read our helpful tips
According to research, bright light exposure early in the morning and during the day helps you adjust your circadian clock. Try getting up and going outside to walk for a few minutes in the sunshine if you are having trouble waking. Do you live in an area that gets very little sunlight? Turn on the lights you can easily adjust your eyes to!
Most of us are aware that “blue” light is harmful to our sleep cycle, particularly right before bed. Did you know all light is bad for sleep, regardless of color? Avoid bright lights between 10 pm and 4:00 am. This type of light affects our brain’s neurotransmitters, hormones, and mood.
Last but not least, set up a schedule for your sleep. While it can be tempting to keep your bedtimes constantly changing, this does not allow our bodies to establish a rhythm. Try to set the same schedule on Tuesday and Thursday if you wake up at 5:30am for your training sessions every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It will allow your body to adjust to not only going to sleep earlier but also waking up early.
References
https://sleepeducation.org/cdc-americans-sleep-deprived/#:~:text=The%20Centers%20for%20Disease%20Control,wheel%20in%20the%20past%20month.
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