Many of us balance social & family life with work, school, and athletics that plunge sleep down the list of our priorities. To add to this, the broadened access to social media, video games, & entertainment pulls even more of our sleep time away. The average American gets 6.5 hours of sleep per night and can’t go twelve minutes without checking their phone. Here are a few reasons why you should disagree with the status quo and prioritize your sleep.

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About Your Sleep

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Sleep is one of the few activities we have in common with every living thing on Earth. Human sleep has two important phases - NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. While sleeping, you alternate between these two phases multiple times a night. Our ability to enter and remain in the REM sleep phase is the biggest contributor to the quality of our sleep. It is a dream-like state where our bodies become paralyzed and our brain activity increases.

 

REM Sleep promotes rational control, decision-making, creativity, and social connections.​ NREM sleep is more responsible for motor learning and retention of new skills, information, and movements. Humans dedicate 20-25% of their sleep time to REM sleep with the other 75-80% going to NREM sleep. 

 

Many things can come in between your ability to get long, quality sleep:

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• late-night technology use and exposure to artificial light

• late-night eating/drinking

• naps during the day

• daily fluctuations in when you go to bed and wake up

• body temperature and room temperature

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Sleep has been associated with many athletic qualities such as speed, endurance, power, injury risk, immunity, attention, decision-making, and learning ability. The positive or negative effect that sleep has on these athletic qualities is mostly determined by how much sleep is attained by the individual.

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The Effects Of Losing Sleep

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Lost sleep will negatively affect your health in nearly every way possible. Insufficient sleep is associated with:

 

• increased risk of type 2 diabetes

• cardiovascular disease

• cancer

• higher risks of dementia later in life

• lower energy levels

• reduced reproductive health and libido

• weakened immune system (more colds and flu)

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To add, a lack of sleep will impair your neurocognitive function:

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• alters decision-making

• increased anxiety and a higher rate of depression

• influences your ability to problem solve

• impedes your ability to create new and retain old memories

• elevates emotional reactivity (higher highs and lower lows)

• reduces your ability to learn and focus

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On top of all of this, a study found that insufficient sleep can also be detrimental to your facial appearance and social appeal. In this study, researchers had 122 raters rate 22 different subjects whom either had insufficient sleep or a recommended amount of sleep on their attractiveness, perceived health, and perceived trustworthiness (without knowing how much sleep each subject got). It was discovered that raters were less inclined to socialize with those who had insufficient sleep, perceived those with insufficient sleep as less attractive, and perceived them as less healthy.

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For athletes, sleep is crucial. Rather than the 7 to 9 hours recommended for the general population, athletes should be aiming for 8 to 10 hours of total sleep a night. This study found that athletes who averaged fewer than 8 hours of sleep per night were at 1.7 times greater risk of injury compared to those who averaged above 8 hours per night. Other studies have found that a lack of sleep was linked to slower sprint times, slower reaction times, quicker exhaustion, 50% lower serve accuracy, and a higher probability of sickness, A lack of sleep is also associated with lower testosterone levels. A lack of testosterone will lead to a decreased ability to focus, more negative moods, less vigor, reduced bone density, and inhibit strength and muscle growth. Clearly, the implications of poor sleep are pretty bad. A decrease in your normal amount of sleep will have negative effects on your mood, performance, health, fatigue levels, and may lead to prolonged body soreness from training. If you’ve missed some hours one night it could take 2-3 days to fully recover.

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The Effects Of Gaining Sleep

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Think about this: a study found that basketball players who increased their average sleep time from 6.6 hours to 8.5 hours per night were rewarded with a 5% increase in speed, a 9% increase in free throw percentage, and a 9.2% increase in three-point shooting percentage. Dr. Cheri Mah of Stanford University, who was involved in the above study, found even more improvements after extending total sleep time in athletes of various different sports. After extending their sleep by at least an hour:

 

• Football player reaction times, 40-yd dash, and 20-yd shuttle times all improved.

• Swimmer lap times, reaction times, turns, and kick strokes all improved as well as their reported moods, daytime sleepiness, and fatigue.

• Tennis player first-serve accuracy improved from 36% to 42%.

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Other studies have linked sleep duration directly to winning or losing in competition. This study connected poor sleep quality as an independent predictor of lost competition after assessing the sleep quality of over 500 elite male and female Brazilian athletes. Another study found that the two teams with the highest placement in a four-team netball tournament had significantly greater sleep duration and higher ratings of sleep quality than the other two bottom-ranked teams.

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In the book, Why We Sleep, Dr. Matthew Walker provides more proof of the benefits of sleep by presenting the differences in Golden State Warrior Andre Iguodala's performance when he had or didn't have enough sleep:

 

With 8+ hours of sleep, Andre had:

• 12% increase in minutes played

• 29% increase in points/min

• 2% increase in 3-PT %

• 9% increase in free throw %

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With under 8 hours of sleep, he had:

• 37% increase in turnovers

• 45% increase in fouls committed

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Getting More Sleep

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Dr. Matthew Walker finds that the most effective method of helping one's sleep is the act of going to bed and waking up at the same time, every day, no matter what. Your biological clock, the clock that determines when you feel awake and when you feel tired, is determined by many things. By keeping your morning activities, nightly activities, sleep times, and wake-up times similar each day you can set your biological clock so your body better understands when it should be prepping to sleep and when it should wake you up. These are some tips that'll help you make sure your body gets the memo it is time to sleep when you want it to.

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1. Don't take naps after 4 PM. A nap during the day does have some restorative effects and can provide a midday energy boost. The best time period to take a nap is between 1 and 4 pm. The best nap length for positive effects is 10 minutes. Naps of up to 2 hours can provide some recovery benefits too, especially if you're prepping for a practice during the day. Longer naps may make it more difficult for you to fall asleep at night and sleep at night should never be sacrificed for sleep during the day.

2. Avoid large meals and beverages at night. Light snacks are ok but large meals can cause indigestion which can interfere with sleep and drinking fluids late may lead to a late-night urge to urinate.

3. Avoid caffeine and nicotine. Both caffeine and nicotine are stimulants that can take hours to wear off and will likely keep you awake late at night.

4. Exercise. Studies have found that consistent physical activity leads to improvements in total sleep time and sleep quality.

5. Don't exercise too late in the day. Exercise causes internal body temperatures to rise which will make it harder for your body temperature to cool late at night when it is time to sleep.

6. Lower your core body temperature. To initiate and maintain sleep at night, your core body temperature must decrease by 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit. One of the things that set your biological clock is melatonin. It is a hormone in your body that is increasingly released with rising levels of darkness (see #8) and decreasing core body temperature as the day transitions from morning to nighttime. As it was when home heating systems were not a thing, our rising melatonin levels at night are influenced by the loss of daylight as a result of the setting of the sun as well as the drop in temperature that coincides.

7. Avoid late-night alcohol. Drinking alcohol late leads to an increased body temperature due to your liver needing to metabolize the alcohol. This can impair your sleep structure and quality. Late-night drinks are one of the greatest suppressors of REM sleep. 

8. Avoid late-night exposure to blue light. Late-night blue light exposure inhibits your melatonin output which will throw off your circadian rhythm and make you feel as if it is earlier in the day rather than later. It is recommended to shut off electronics 1 to 2 hours before you attempt to go to sleep. One way to work around this for times when you need to do work late at night is to use warmer (>2800K), dimmer lights later in the day along with turning on "Night Mode" on your devices.

9. Get active in the morning. Waking up is a slow process. In the first few minutes, you will not yet be alert or energized and you may have the urge to stay in bed for longer than you need to. When sluggishly going about your morning, rather than giving you energy right away, your biological clock may push back the time you'll actually feel awake for a number of minutes or hours. By squeezing in a quick activity, such as a low-intensity jog, in the morning as soon as you wake up, especially if it is outdoors, you can raise your core body temperature and take in some morning light which will help establish a wake-up time for your biological clock. By doing this, your biological clock will work to set an appropriate sleep time that will function best with your chosen wake-up time.

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It is essential that you prioritize sleep. It can make or break your daily interactions, sports performance, self-image, day-to-day moods, and long-term health. Improving your sleep is the easiest pathway towards plenty of rewards.