It’s Time To Redefine Sleep By Nick Littlehales, Elite Sport Sleep Recovery Coach

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Nick Littlehales - Elite Sport Sleep Recovery Coach Since 1998.

Over two decades redefining sleep in elite sport worldwide

International bestselling author of SLEEP published in 17 languages

 

 

"It really should not come as any surprise, with centuries, decades, and generations of no sleep education, that we still adopt a human mantra of ‘take it for granted’. As a result, how well we sleep, recover is not even today, by many considered a performance criteria.

It’s time to develop a more proactive understanding of sleep the underrated health pillar. Debunk it, redefine it and adopt practical, achievable steps to fully reveal this natural human mental and physical recovery process 24/7.

Sleep influences everything from mood, motivation, decision making and resilience, understanding our optimum 24/7 approach should be the key health pillar priority.

Research has and continues to reveal that sleep deprivation has a major impact on mental fitness and wellbeing. Actual or perceived low impact levels of recovery will affect how well our brain can process information, our emotional response to required tasks, mood, motivation, ability to learn new skills, decision making, reaction times, awareness, alertness, stamina, and relationships.

As we roll through the key sleep stages in cycles, our brain can catch up, [regenerate- rejuvenate] prioritise and file all the information both positive and negative, that we have been exposed to during the day. If our brains are not able to reveal the key sleep quality stages in cycles, while we are in a perceived sleep state, then ongoing mental functioning decreases nearly twice as fast as physical performance.

As a result, although we may feel or able to shift to physically functional the following day, it's likely that we won’t be able to recall everything that we learned the previous day and may struggle to make effective decisions. We feel an increased perception of effort, fatigue kicks in quicker, our mood and motivation become imbalanced.

Redefining your everyday recovery approach, starts with understanding that as humans we should be synchronised with the Circadian Rhythms. This sunrise sunset, daylight, diminished light, dark and temperature shift process, is key to optimising human functionality.

A circadian rhythm is a 24-hour internal cycle managed by our body clock deep within the brain. Regulating our internal systems such as sleeping, eating patterns, hormone production, mood, and motivation.

If we combine this, with the knowledge that pre-electric light illuminating our homes, streets and lives, humans adopted a multiphasic sleep wake cycle, not just one nocturnal block (Monophasic). And that we all have a Chronotype which is your genetic sleeping characteristic - An AMer lark morning or PMer night owl evening person.

These three out of seven Key Sleep Recovery Indicators known as KSRI’s part of the proven R90 Technique form the basis of a redefined 24/7 approach to optimise mental and physical activity developing more sustainable levels of mental and physical recovery.

R90 Technique: Recovery in 90-minute Cycles. Ninety minutes is in principle the length of time it takes a person under clinical conditions to go through the key recovery stages and phases.

If you think of sleep in cycles per week, not hours per night, very quickly one or two disrupted nights out of seven have less impact on your overall approach. Taking the pressure off an all-or-nothing 8 hours per night focus.

A key first step would be to Identify your most consistent everyday wake time [start your daytime] and break your 24 hours up into sixteen 90-minute time periods.

Focus on your first 90 minutes Post Sleep Period after wake, grab plenty of short 2/5-minute distractive vacant mindspace breaks every 90 minutes, allocate a 30/20-minute midday/late afternoon nap…Or as I refer to it in elite sport a CRP Controlled Recovery Period. Vacant mindspace, me time, my moments and take the pressure off your 24/7.

Ideally the target is to achieve five ninety minute cycles [7.5 hours] nocturnally combined with as many micro CRP’s and one 20/30 minute CRP as required. Planning to achieve 35 cycles in any seven day period. And as importantly, being more aware of how much sleep recovery you are targeting when, why and how.

In a recent study published in the European Journal of Sports Science, researchers found that elite athletes were able to take daytime naps and not suffer any adverse effects on their nocturnal sleep. This kind of nap is known as ‘appetitive’ – taken not to compensate for sleep loss, but from an appetite to sleep owing to training induced fatigue. Participants had their level of tiredness measured before their naps, and how long they took to get to sleep was recorded. The scientists found that, of the participants, elite athletes drifted off faster and did not need to be feeling tired to nap.

Recovery is a 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week commitment, and through using the daylight hours in addition to your nocturnal approach you will be able to give your mind and body the opportunity to continually reboot while dealing with the demands of modern life.

HRV (Heart Rate Variability) Many know about this important factor and most track it in the endeavour to optimise performance and overall health and wellbeing. Another as important success factor is Human Recovery Variabilities.

Remember your ability to sleep, reveal more consistent, sustainable levels of recovery is all about the rolling 24/7 circadian rhythms of our day, in particular exposure to light at the right times in the four phases of every day. Key to own personal performance as well as protecting yourself is creating as much rhythm, pattern, and harmony in your 24/7

No Worries: Worrying about sleep is its greatest disrupter, creating a more defined approach can be your personal performance Game Changer"

 

In this TEDX Talks in Newcastle, Nick discusses his work and how he helps some of the world’s biggest stars in international sports achieve the best possible sleep to help them achieve peak performance on the world stage.

 

 

More About Nick Littlehales

Nick Littlehales is an International Elite Sport Sleep Coach, recognised as the world’s first with 35 years industry experience and over two decades dedicated to elite sport. Founder of the Game Changing R90 Technique now recognised as a ground-breaking approach in Human Recovery Performance.

Nick’s, unique, passionate, and proven techniques are endorsed and recommended by leading athletes, sport science professionals, managers, coaches, and organisations in world sport.

An International best-selling author of SLEEP published in 17 countries worldwide, which means this unique R90 Technique is being adopted, by anyone who sleeps worldwide.