Sleep and Athletic Performance
I started to study sleep more than 40 years ago. As a psychology professor at a major university I saw that college students in my large (2,000 student) introductory psychology course had a constant struggle with sleep deprivation—and it wasn’t simply because of my lectures! From puberty until the mid-20’s, you need 9 ¼ hours of sleep every night to be fully alert, yet often manage only 6 or 7 hours. This results in significant deleterious effects on cognitive performance. I learned that better sleep hygiene could play a pivotal role in enhancing academic performance, so I started developing lectures and written materials for sleep education. Since many of my students were scholar-athletes, I started working with teams and individuals striving to become better at their sport. The results of paying attention to sleep were immediate and profound. We gave seminars to athletes from basketball to hockey, lacrosse, wrestling and field hockey and started to see vast improvement in energy level, reaction time and recovery from injury. As our research expanded across sports, skill levels and age groups (from middle school to professional athletes), we realized that our message needed to be disseminated widely. We had already published three very successful sleep books for general audiences (Power Sleep, Sleep for Success and Remmy and the Brain Train). It became apparent to us that a short, easy to read book focused on athletes and sleep would be of considerable value. Thus, Sleep to Win!
Given that most of us have had the dream of becoming a better athlete, there is now a distinct possibility to make that happen. Sleep to Win! offers a wake-up call on how to improve performance and be a winner, whether you’re a middle school soccer player, high school quarterback, college laxer, professional hockey player, amateur runner or just a senior citizen golfer wanting to shoot your age. Recent research has shown us that when we get enough sleep, we are able to accomplish more as an athlete, with greater skill, endurance and a better mood. With more efficient and effective sleep habits, in our book, you can reach new heights and be a champion at your game.
Our proposition is simple and compelling. Do you want to be healthier, smarter, more productive and competitive, constantly expanding your potential? What if you could take a few small steps every day that would enable you to eventually achieve all these things?
You can.
In fact, it’s easy!
Sleep to Win! calls for changing attitudes and behaviors. Sleep is considered a luxury in our society, not a necessity. We must learn to value sleep and take the time necessary to meet our daily sleep requirement. This means adding at least one more hour per night to our time in bed. Most people claim that there “just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.” Our thesis is that by taking the time to sleep, you will be much more efficient, effective, in a better mood, and have leisure time to boot.
From Zeo blog by COach Mah
Sleep to Win! 
Very interesting! Just shared with my followers.
Great! Thanks for visiting our site!