sleep and recovery

Sleep is extremely important for recovery. Please don’t underestimate the power of sleep. I try to go to bed every night around 10PM or 10:30PM and usually wake up at 6:45AM. Or, if I don’t have morning clients I force myself to sleep till 9AM.

Shawn Phillips, a Los Angeles personal trainer and owner of Perfect Body Incorporated, talks about his personal struggle against chronic fatigue syndrome:

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome | Adrenal Fatigue | Adrenal Exhaustion | Low Energy.

Shawn’s website has plenty of useful help lists.  Be sure to check it out: Personal trainer Beverly Hills

A study published in the Journal of Alternative Medicine shows promising benefits from the consumption of Goji juice.

increased ratings for energy level, athletic performance, quality of sleep, ease of awakening, ability to focus on activities, mental acuity, calmness, and feelings of health, contentment, and happiness

You can read the full abstract here, although note the study was sponsored by a producer of Goji berry products:

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical study of the general effects of a standardized Lycium barbarum (Goji) Juice, GoChi.

That’s the whole deal with being a professional athlete… being a full-time athlete isn’t about spending so many more hours training, it’s about spending loads more hours sleeping and resting.

South African ultra runner and adventure racer, Lisa de Speville, talks about the importance of sleep, rest and recovery.  Lisa has just completed the “Bull of Africa“, a 6 day race!

You can read the full article, rest is training, over on Lisa’s blog.

This story from Wired has been getting a lot of coverage on the Internet, but given our earlier post, we had to include it as well:

Scientists say that a successful midday nap depends on two things: timing and (no kidding) caffeine consumption. Experiments performed at Loughborough University in the UK showed that the sleep-deprived need only a cup of coffee and 15 minutes of shut-eye to feel amazingly refreshed.

1. Right before you crash, down a cup of java. The caffeine has to travel through your gastro-intestinal tract, giving you time to nap before it kicks in.

2. Close your eyes and relax. Even if you only doze, you’ll get what’s known as effective microsleep, or momentary lapses of wakefulness.

3. Limit your nap to 15 minutes. A half hour can lead to sleep inertia, or the spinning down of the brain’s prefrontal cortex, which handles functions like judgment. This gray matter can take 30 minutes to reboot.

Cheat on the Need to Sleep - Wired How-To Wiki

Rosekind argues more would get done a lot faster if workers simply took the time to sleep. And yes, there are simple things we can do to make that happen. Naps at work are good. And caffeine used strategically can stoke performance. (Naps and coffee. I love this man.)

SiliconValley.com interviews Mark Rosekind, a sleep consultant, who preaches the merits of good sleep to Silicon Valley’s business elite.

Cassidy: Sleepless in Silicon Valley? One man says no - SiliconValley.com.

… it really wasn’t! It’s not you, it’s me!

2am, I couldn’t get comfortable, headed downstairs for water, and got intercepted by the sofa on the way back up… I tossed and turned there for the next 3.5 hours.

Fortunately, I know the solution for me: stop working until midnight.

For those who’d appreciate a little more help, the Sleep Council has produced a very useful publication: The Sleep Good Feel Good Guide.

I also noticed on the Council’s website an Insomnia Helpline, open 6pm - 8pm. Had it been open at 2am last night, it might well have had me calling.

Backcare week kicks off on the 4th and 5th of October with ‘The Back Show’ at London Olympia 2. The week is organised by Backcare, the charity for healthier backs which enjoys it’s 40th birthday this year.

Information packs containing an abundance of publicity and resources are available to order for anyone wishing to host thier own event during the week. On Tuesday 8th, the Manchester PCT Physiotherapy Department are teaming up with Chorlton High School to host an information and activities day focusing on healthy backs for children.

Choosing a mattress is one of the most important decisions you can make. Get it right and you can look forward to deep sleep, comfort and a happier, healthier lifestyle. Get it wrong and you could be looking at years of aches, pains and restless nights.

One question we get asked time and again at Sleep and Recovery is: how do I choose the right mattress for me?

We’ve put together this short guide and hope you find it useful:

Choosing a mattress.

We’ve touched on high specification foam mattresses previously, in particular their use by professional sportsmen and athletes to improve performance and recovery.

High specification foam is the latest technology to be employed in mattresses. It builds on the benefits of memory foam mattresses, and overcomes some of their weaknesses: memory foam mattresses can often lead to overheating.

High specification foam mattresses come from a medical background, and are the only static surface endorsed by the UK’s National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). Select Medical pick up on this in their article on pressure relief:

All individuals assessed as being vulnerable to pressure ulcers should, as a minimum provision, be placed on a high-specification foam mattress with pressure-redistributing properties.

selectmedical.co.uk.

SpeedEndurance ran an interesting article that covered an athlete’s sleep needs. A little emotive, but it will have you sleeping like a baby to achieve those performance improvements.

How Much Sleep Do I Need? | SpeedEndurance.com.