Sleep and Recovery

In the process of writing some articles on recovery optimization, I came across this bit on increasing sleep as an ergogenic aid:

"Researchers at Stanford University's Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine have conducted studies with several groups of Stanford student-athletes, examining the effects of extended sleep on athletic performance. Here's a sampling of their results, which show improvements across a variety of sports:

Swimming: Five members of the Stanford men's and women's swimming teams increased their sleep goal to 10 hours per night for a period of 6-7 weeks. This led to improvements in speed, reaction time, turn times and kick strokes. Swimmers shaved an average of .51 seconds off a 15-meter sprint, they left the blocks .15 seconds faster, shaved .10 seconds off their average turn time, and added an average of five kicks to their stroke frequency. Out of the water, swimmers reported reductions in their levels of daytime sleepiness, improvements to their mood, more energy and less fatigue.

Tennis: Researchers asked five members of the women's tennis team to increase their sleep goal to 10 hours per night for 5-6 weeks. Players improved their sprint times, dropping from an average of 19.12 to 17.56 seconds. They also increased their serve accuracy, going from an average of 12.6 valid serves to 15.61.

Football: Seven players on the Stanford football team spent 7-8 weeks attempting to sleep for 10 hours per night. Their extended sleep resulted in improvements to their 20-yard shuttle -- average time decreased to 4.61 seconds from 4.71 -- and to their 40-yard dash, which dropped to an average of 4.89 from 4.99 seconds. (Both the shuttle and the dash are among the drills conducted at the NFL Scouting Combine.) Players also reported improvements to their daytime energy levels and mood and reduced daytime fatigue.

Basketball: For 5-7 weeks, 11 members of the university's basketball team extended their nightly sleep to 10 hours. As a result, shooting accuracy among the players improved significantly: Free-throw shooting improved 9 percent, and three-point shooting 9.2 percent."

I get 8hrs, about 90% of the time, >8 about 5%. Still looks like more would help. The interesting bit (do some googling if you're inclined) is some related research that shows the added sleep beyond 7hrs has significant effects on muscle-memory/coordination.

Get 10hrs? Sounds great...except that puts me in bed at like 8pm. I don't even get home from the gym on climbing days until about 7:50. Going to try though. Anyway, thought it was worth passing along.

I read an article a while back that seconds this motion. A boxer, long distance runner, and a Olympic lifter all averaged 9-10 hours of sleep a night particularly on training days. Just thought I'd share.

Wow those are pretty impressive results, I get anywhere from 5-7 cause my mind never shuts down. Need to fix that and perhaps that'll improve my climbing.....

Doesn’t surprise me. On the RARE occasions that I’ve gotten 10 hours of sleep, I’ve felt so much better while climbing the following day. I’ve never done anything to quantify it like above, but the improvements in strength/technique and confidence were definitely noticeable. I imagine that getting 10 hours on the reg would magnify that.

IMO getting enough sleep is the most difficult part of training. I have to be very disciplined to get to bed in time to get 8 hours. For me, getting 10 hours during the week would mean going to bed at 7pm, which isn’t likely. Might have to try it on rest days though.

Those studies don't surprise me. I've had a lot of crap happen in the past year and a half, and don't think I've slept more than 7 hours a night in that whole time. Probably, on average, I get between 3-5 hours a night of actual sleeping, sometimes less. And it has definitely taken its toll in how I function (not to mention lack of energy to exercise and jacking up metabolism.) It definitely has a huge effect on my climbing and overwell sense of well-being....the nights that I get closer to 7 I feel much better the next day.

Getting 8 hours sounds like magic! :-(
Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the reminder about the ergogenic benefits of sleep. Looking back, it does sorta seem like I made some big measurable gains when I was sleeping "excessively". And not so much gain in the last month-and-a-half where I've been neglecting sleep (for reasons that seem justified, but ... )

A caution about those reports of measurable increases in performance:
College athletes during their sport's main season are expected to be making substantial gains in measurable performance over a period of several weeks. Normally in any serious (college-level) athletic activity nowadays, there's a multi-phase training program designed to "peak" for some late-season big event(s).

Most serious competitive athletes make no attempt to maintain peak performance (or body weight) all year round - (tends to be risky physiologically and unsustainable psychologically). So of course there must be some "ramping up" phases. Without knowing the expected baseline rate of measurable performance ramp up, it's difficult to guess what percentage of these anecdotally reported increases ought to be attributed to extra sleep time.

I better get into that nap quick now.

Ken

This is great because now I have an excuse for why I suck so bad at climbing. I get 5 or 6 hours of sleep most nights, then sleep 8 or 9 hours about once a week to catch up.

Yes, I'd like to sleep more, but with two jobs, a wife, and kids, I don't have time to both sleep and climb regularly. I have chosen to cut down on the sleep.