Is your sleep making your jiu jitsu worse?
Is your sleep making your jiu jitsu worse?
We are all busy!
We get it everyone these days is busy whether it's with kids, training, or work. Often the first thing that gets sacrificed is your sleep. We are often feeling like we are out of time to get everything done without that.
Sleep impact on metabolism and performance:
The downside of this sacrifice is that sleep is one of the predominant factors in your overall metabolism and your performance.
Activity and recovery are cycles that require a balancing act of stimulus and response.
Without proper sleep and Recovery your metabolism slows down and your hormones will drive negative changes in your body.
Below will look at some tips that can improve your sleep but regardless this needs to be a priority for you to ensure that you are making time for this.
Tips
- Avoid napping during the day
some people will tend to nap during the day. This can drive down the hormones that you need to sleep more effectively at night.
- Don’t read or watch tv in bed. If you do use blue light blocking glasses
You have photoreceptors in your body that respond to blue light. This blue light drives wakefulness and if you have too much blue light just before bed You will have a harder time going to sleep.
- Stop caffeine at noon
most people will start their day with their morning cup of coffee. While this is fine for first thing in the morning it is important that you give yourself at least 8 hours between your last time taking caffeine versus when you go to bed.
- Block light in your bedroom
One of the smartest things I have personally done for myself is spending the money on black out curtains. This again uses the photoreceptors and your body to promote improved sleep. Also these will reduce the noise from outside further promoting your sleep.
- Cooler is better
Your room should be nice and cool. This is a well as all the previous tips are to take advantage of your body's natural rhythm for sleep
- Develop a pre-sleep ritual
In addition to these tips you should develop your own sleep ritual. For me I take magnesium and CoQ10 each night before bed. I generally don't take melatonin but that works for some people.
I tried to go to bed at roughly the same time each night whenever possible.
When I'm particularly stressed I will take some time and journal about what's going on and get those things on paper versus rolling over them in my head.
Additionally some people find meditation or listening to music effective. The overall key is to find a pattern that promotes the best sleep that you possibly can have so you can perform and look your best.
What steps can you use to make your sleep just a bit better tonight?
