Sleep more to become a better athlete
29-06-2013
Most athletes are constantly searching for an edge over their competition. Often this involves gruelling exercise regimes, swearing off favourite foods and even training at extreme altitudes, but what if you could become a better athlete simply by sleeping more?
Recent research has found that simply having a slightly longer sleep can make a massive difference to athletic performance. It sounds too good to be true but this wide ranging study looked at a number of different individuals and teams and found that they all performed far better after having an hour more sleep each night.
The scientists findings have lead them to tell coaches and managers that it is actually better to cut down training and increase sleeping time for most professional teams.
The extra sleep helps in a number of ways, most importantly in relation to muscle memory. It would appear that in the seventh hour of sleep there are some interesting cognitive processes on the go which help embed muscle memories, meaning that athletes that sleep longer are going to have a better muscle memory from their training the day before.
The New York Yankees have already changed their training routine to provide their players with more sleep and other teams look set to incorporate these findings, which should be to most of the athletes liking.
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