“From a mechanistic point of view, an average person’s sleep isn’t different to elite athletes’ but their sleep is challenged that much more. Moving on to the world of elite athletes, Luke points out the challenges athletes have to overcome.
So, we usually say after 4pm have decaf or avoid caffeine all together.” We know levels of caffeine can stay in your system for 4-6 hours, so if you’re having a coffee late in the afternoon or evening it’ll still be in your system when you go to bed. “However, what can be detrimental is the timing of it. Luke advises, “A lot of people these days self-medicate with caffeine to try and maintain day time alertness as it can stimulate mental activity and increase physical and mental performance both in sport and day to day working life. The conversation then moves on to the contested topic of caffeine.
Athletes sleep expert movie#
Sometimes the content you engage in can be quite stimulating itself so watching an exciting movie before bed or seeing a tweet which elicits an emotional response can be detrimental, but this can be quite context specific.” “But most of the time, be careful what you read or watch before bed. As a rule of thumb we say an hour to 30 minutes before you try and fall asleep you should limit your exposure to blue light which can simulate feeling of wakefulness. We don’t say avoid technology entirely as that’s the world we live in these days, but it’s just about being clever about how and when you use it. “Within that winddown routine is a bit of a technology curfew. Luke comments on how winding down the use of technology can help in the quest for better sleep. I would advise having a wind down routine of about 30-40 minutes and then attempting to sleep.”Īnother hot topic in the area of sleep is technology, blue light and the use of screens before bed. Whereas when it comes to sleep at night a lot of people in today’s society tend to work quite late and have social activities in the evening and go to bed as soon as they get home. When you wake up in the morning you don’t just roll out of bed into your office chair and start working, you usually have quite a gradual wake up process. Having a wind down routine is a really beneficial thing to adopt in terms of falling asleep. “Another piece of advice is to have some sort of wind down routine before you go to bed irrespective of what time of night it is. Just try to think of it in the same way you wouldn’t have your dinner unless you felt hungry, so it’s the same sort of principle, you need to listen to your body.
Sometimes that can lead to problems with falling asleep which can lead to anxiety around not getting enough. This means people try and go to bed at that time irrespective of whether they feel sleepy or not. “For example, a lot of people would work out what time they need to wake up and then work backwards from there in order to get eight hours. “The reason for that is a lot of people in general tend to stick to very strict bed time and wake up times in order to try and get a perceived need of sleep. “One of the most beneficial things you need to do to get a good night’s sleep is to go to bed when you feel sleepy” advised Luke. It is a common query in today’s busy world, how can I get the right amount of sleep and how can I improve my sleep quality? We asked Luke to shine some light on these questions and give his top tips. On World Sleep Day (Friday 15thMarch), we spoke to EIS Physiologist and sleep expert Luke Gupta around some tips to getting a good night’s sleep and how the EIS is working with elite athletes to overcome some of the sleep challenges heading towards the Tokyo Games.
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