These Elite Athletes Say Sleep Is Their Secret Weapon

A number of recent and tantalizing studies have suggested that simple, restorative sleep can help you think, perform, and recover better. Its compelled the worlds leading players (often prompted by their teams sleep coaches) to reprogram their social lives and change their priorities. Its why pro teams practice facilities include nap roomsthe Red Sox turned an old utility room into one, and the Warriors new Chase Center includes individual sleep pods. Theyre reclining chairs with caps over the top that block out noise and light, but still: sleep pods!

How sleep improves performance

Sleepnot training or working for another houris when your body gets stronger and your mind gets sharper. You break down your muscles in training, but rest is when the fibers repair themselves and become more powerful. And all those skills and memories you acquire in a day are encoded while the lights are out. Lose sleep and your neurons start firing more slowly and working together less efficiently. Your reaction time, your speed, and your focus all degrade. Even just three nights of crappy sleep has been shown to drop your bench press by 20 pounds. And in the long run, youre cueing up obesity, heart disease, stroke, and other health troubles. The research thats coming out now is unequivocal, says MH advisor W. Christopher Winter, M.D., the neurologist who first figured outmore than a decade agothat jet lag was related to Major League Baseball teams losing games. People who sleep more and sleep better perform better, both in the short and the long term. You might not need ten hours like an elite athlete. But you should shoot for seven to nine, and most of us arent even coming close.

What does more sleep really get you?

Cheri Mah, M.D., knows better than most the dividends sleep can pay. In 2011, as a researcher at Stanfords Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory, she published the study that catapulted the subject of sleep into clubhouses across the country. Dr. Mah required a group of players on Stanfords mens basketball team to snooze at least ten hours a night. (How do you get college students to sleep more? Make them spend more time in bedfor almost everyone, more time in bed leads to more time asleep, she says.)

No one expected more sleep to be bad for the players, but the results were a shock: Free-throw percentages increased by 9 percent, successful three-point field goals jumped 9.2 percent, and injuries dropped to boot. They all improved, says Dr. Mah, whos now with the University of California, San Francisco. Related studies she conducted showed that with more sleep, college swimmers improved their times, soccer players sprinted faster and reported increased vigor, and tennis players saw their accuracy increase in serves and shots. Basically, both their brains and their bodies functioned better. Then my story became: How do I apply this?

One of the first pro teams Dr. Mah consulted for was the Golden State Warriors . That was in 2014, toward the beginning of their multiseason run as the NBAs dominant force. She quickly helped the team optimize its travel and practice schedules. Cross-country flights before games and red-eyes afterward? No way. Mandatory practice the morning after a six-hour journey? Nope. In fact, fatigue is such a clear indicator of performance that Dr. Mah collaborated with ESPN on a schedule-alert project to predict when NBA teams would be at highest risk of losing based on travel and fatigue factors. In its second season, the tool correctly guessed sleep-based losses 78 percent of the time. Since then, Dr. Mah says, the NBA has improved scheduling by keeping player fatigue in mind. (You should consider the same with your own calendar.) Organizational changes help only so much; athletes have to follow through on their own.

How to sleep like a champ

For those of us who arent paid tens of millions of dollars to perform, the idea of finding more time for sleep can be daunting. When obligations pile up, its usually the first thing to go. Thats backward thinking. If you increase your time in bed by even 15 to 20 minutes, you will notice a difference, says Meeta Singh, M.D., a sleep-disorder and sports-medicine expert at the Henry Ford Sleep Disorders Center. You know how Tom Brady gets to bed by 8:30? He prioritizes it. Use these strategies to help yourself get more sleep, too:

Cut the bull

I always encounter this type, the Silicon Valley dude whos killing it financially, has kids, is trying to do a triathlon, Dr. Winter says. He goes to bed at midnight and wakes up at 4:00 a.m. He says hes doing great and needs four hours. But just because you can doesnt mean you should. Give your body a chance to operate at its full potential by getting a complete nights rest a few days in a row. Then see how you perform. You might do better on nine hours, even if youve been telling everyoneincluding yourselfthat youre fine with four.

Work your room

During the season, athletes sleep in different hotel rooms every week. To create the perfect environmenta quiet, dark, cool room (between 60 and 67 degrees)they might need to use pillows to keep blinds and curtains light-tight. LeBron reportedly relies on white noise (Rain on Leaves in the Calm app) to block out distractions. Use your home advantage and maybe even a bit of tech to set up the right sleeping environment every night.

What Sleep Coaches Tell Top Athletes BusinessInsider USA Images

Foam-roll before bed

You need a bedtime routine thats not about screens, which mess with your ability to produce the sleep hormone melatonin. Athletes (and probably you) know its a good idea to foam-roll muscles anyway, so why not make it part of a dedicated 15 to 30 minutes of wind-down time, Dr. Mah says. Substitutes for rolling: yoga or some time reading an actual book or magazine.

If travel is short, dont change your schedule

North American athletes normally shuffle between two to four time zones, Dr. Winter says. Research suggests that the players performance peaks in late afternoon, so he may tell a West Coast pitcher to stay on California time for a nighttime matchup in New York. If youre in a different time zone for a quick meeting that falls within your regular work hours, you might not have to bother trying to adjust.

Power up with naptime, if you can

Take a nap to help reset after lunch or midafternoon to finish your workday strong. In the NBA, stars such as Kevin Durant, Paul George, and Steph Curry all swear by the pregame nap to keep them alert and focused.

Make consistency important

You need weeks of consistent sleep to live and play to your full potential, Dr. Mah says. That means going to bed and getting up at nearly the same time every day. Your sleep debt accumulates when you dont get enough for days on end, and a night or weekend of extra sleep wont settle your bill.

And if you cant sleep tonight

I tell my athletes and my patients that sleep is the most important thing in the world, but tonights sleep is irrelevant, Dr. Winter says. Dont beat yourself up if you have some rough nights or weeks. Thats normal. What shouldnt be normal is cheating your sleep every night and expecting victory in every game.