When an investor wants to increase the probability of a high return on his money, he will research the internal and external factors that can influence the performance of his investment and do want he can to manipulate these factors to his advantage.

Athletes can do the same thing when they take a moment to evaluate the internal and external factors that are having an impact on their performance gains (both positive and negative) and do what they can to control these to their benefit.

To many people, exercise and nutrition are the obvious components to balance properly and while they are stressors and need to be thoughtfully planned, they are secondary to their antagonist, recovery; the most important element of Stress Management.

And the most popular, yet under-utilized recovery method…?

Sleep

It doesn’t matter how well you eat and train if you don’t get adequate rest. All your efforts will produce benefits less than what you could potentially achieve unless you learn to manage this factor effectively.

Ever notice what happens when you go camping where there are no lights? As soon as the sun goes down, everyone starts getting sleepy, even if it is hours before they usually go to bed! This is a biological rhythm programmed into our bodies. Once the lights of the day fade over the horizon, cortisol levels (the wake hormone) decrease and melatonin (the sleep hormone) increase. The systems in our bodies that use energy and keep us awake shut down, while the systems that repair and regenerate our bodies turn on. The catch is that we need to be asleep in order to fully benefit from the repair cycle, which researcher shows begins at roughly 10:00 pm.
How many of you finish a day of calculated training with the same attention to a good night of sleep?

A quick explanation of brain wave function might be useful here.

There are 4 major brain wave categories:

1. Beta is normal waking consciousness - such as how you should be feeling now.
2. Alpha is clear, peaceful consciousness - such as during relaxation or meditation.
3. Theta is deep reflective consciousness - such as how you feel when you're dropping off to sleep, or sleeping lightly.
4. Delta is unconsciousness - the deepest sleep you fall in to where you're "dead to the world" and where most tissue repair tends to occur. You would, under normal circumstances, drop into delta sleep 4 or 5 times in the first 4-5 hours of sleep between ten p.m. and two to three a.m.

The normal cycles of your body include two repair cycles. The first physical repair cycle begins at approximately 10:00 pm and continues until about 2:00 am. Then the psychogenic repair cycle begins and ends around 5:00 am.

If you are sleeping during the hours other than those consistent with your natural repair cycles, you may not be revitalizing yourself. Anyone who has worked a graveyard shift knows about this.

And if you're staying awake until midnight staring at a computer or television screen, you’ve wasted approximately half of your physical recovery period and you're body will not be fully repaired to get the most out of the next day’s training.

Not getting in enough delta wave sleep is like a repetitive strain injury to your hormonal system.

Start Sleeping Better Tonight

Follow these tips to establish a routine for getting the most from your athletic potential:

• Dim the lights as it gets closer to bed time
• Avoid using anything with a screen
• Read inspirational material 30 minutes before you go to bed (email me for a list of my recommendations)
• Make your room as dark and quiet as possible for sleeping
• Visualize your next day’s training or competition as you fall asleep (do this only if you can imagine perfect execution)

Remember that sleep is more important than the training itself. Indulge in it. We can quantify improvements in performance when we manage this factor properly, but the one thing I find so remarkable is how many clients have told me that their confidence on the court or field increases in direct proportion to how well they have slept. That reason alone is worth making the recovery phase of your training a priority.

As I said, I’ll be returning to delve into this subject of Stress Management further, but next week I’m going to give you a break from all the reading and provide you with a short and highly effective exercise that greatly improves hand quickness. If you’re an athlete whose sport requires the need to raise your hands above the chest at some point, you’ll want to check back.

Patrick Welch
www.proelitesports.com