THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP HYGIENE

& How it Relates to Training

Whether you use your apple watch, oura ring, whoop, or any of the numerous sleep trackers that exist today, the ultimate use of them all is to understand how we sleep and the quality of it. Training/exercise has little benefit to us if we do not have optimal levels of sleep. Before any amount of proper diet, programming, and alternative recovery methods, we must prioritize our sleep. It is the leading indicator of our day-to-day health and overall mood. Individuals who get regular sleep will respond better to training/exercise in addition to other life stressors. The greatest recovery method for any athlete or individual is sleep. During this time, our cellular processes carry out all the necessary functions in order for our bodies to heal and rejuvenate for the next day. Our smart devices can track signs of these processes, but what can we take from these measurements?

Variable Data

Smart watches and devices give us a large number of variables and data, including Heart Rate Variability (HRV), respiratory rate, REM, Core, and Deep sleep measurements. These metrics are helpful in a lot of ways, but how do you, as an average, everyday person get anything from them? Just like any quality fitness goal, you should look for patterns, trends, and inconsistencies. All of this data in one night gives us very little knowledge of what is actually going on. Looking at sleep trends over weeks and months gives a much view of what is going on in our sleep. An analysis of these measurements can even give you an idea of how your daily activities can affect your sleep as well.

●      Excessive caffeine consumption - can impact sleep quality by not allowing REM & Deep sleep

●      Dehydration - impacts circulation, blood pressure, and heart rate making sleep difficult

●      Exercise timing - some individuals who exercise later in the day can be left with elevated heart rates that make relaxing before sleep very difficult

●      Leisure activities - scrolling on your phone for a while before bed, late night eating or drinking, inconsistent time of falling asleep

Sleep Over Time

If we take a larger look at our sleep variables over time, we can now take a better look at how our training affects us. A really simple method for this is waking up in the morning and checking your body temperature and resting heart rate. The reason being is that these two factors can tell a lot about our body’s ability to recover. Elevated body temperature, especially while sleeping, is evidence of elevated stress levels in the body, similar to the response to fighting an infection or sickness. Resting heart rate is higher tells us a similar story in that our body is in an elevated state of stress and is not in a calm, restorative state. These two metrics can be indicative of being in a state of overtraining. Overtraining is a phenomenon that occurs when our bodies cannot effectively recover from the increased amount of training/stress we are putting it under. With sleep being the number one recovery method we have, it is important to track and understand the signs of good or poor sleep we are experiencing.

In the end, sleep analysis doesn’t need to be overly complex. It comes down to looking at overarching trends and what they can tell us about ourselves and our training as a whole.