This month we focus on recovery. One of the biggest elements that affect recovery is sleep.
We all know that we should probably get a little more sleep whether you’re a child or adult. However, whether it is a lack of time or an inability to go to sleep or stay asleep, we always seem to need a little more.
I’m sure everyone has heard that adults need around 7-9 hours of quality sleep every night to be optimally rested and recovered. Young adults and children need even more! You should always try to get an optimal amount of sleep, but at times that is just not possible. What do you do to make up for those lost hours of sleep?
According to Nick Littlehales, the answer is Controlled Recovery Periods(CRP) or Naps.
Nick Littlehales is a sleep expert who has worked with Manchester United since the late 1990s. He has also worked with Real Madrid, Man City, the English National Team, and personally with Cristiano Ronaldo(Littlehales/Ronaldo Article), just to name a few. He wrote Sleep: The Myth of 8 Hours, the Power of Naps, and the New Plan to Recharge Your Body & Mind. I highly recommend giving it a read. It is full of tons of useful information that will help you better understand sleep and how you can maximize the quality of your sleep.
Adding Controlled Recovery Periods (CRP) aka naps into your recovery arsenal is a game changer. CRPs are 5-30 or 90-minute naps at specific times of the day that align with the natural circadian rhythm of the body. One sleep cycle lasts 90 minutes. After 30 minutes of sleeping, you enter a deeper stage of sleep that makes it more difficult to wake up feeling rested and energetic. If you sleep for 60 minutes your body will more than likely wake feeling tired and lethargic for the next 30 minutes because it wants to finish the sleep cycle.
If you have 90 minutes to nap, that is spectacular and is best done in your bed. However, for most of us, 5-30 minutes is a lot more realistic and easier to squeeze into our schedules. It can be done almost anywhere. You can nap in a chair, on a couch, in your car, or even under your desk. Just close your eyes, relax, and attempt to fall asleep and set your phone alarm or an alarm for 5-30 minutes.
The greatest part about it is you do not need to fall asleep in order to gain massive benefits both mentally and physically. I did not believe it when I read it, and I almost never fall asleep in the 5-30 minutes. However, sure enough when the alarm goes off I am significantly more alert and feel better rested.
Another common issue with naps is that people say that if they nap during the day, they cannot sleep at night. You have your circadian rhythm to blame for that, and there is a solution for that as well.
Your circadian rhythm is best set by waking up at the same time every day according to Littlehales. This gives you certain ‘ideal’ windows to take naps that align with your circadian rhythm and should not affect the quality or ability to fall asleep at night.
If you wake up at 6:30 am every day or at least most days, your ideal CRP or nap windows are 1-3 pm and 5-7 pm. If you wake up at 5:00 am, then your windows are 11:30 am-1:30 pm and
3:30-5:30 pm. If you wake up at 8:30 am, then windows are 3-5 pm and 7-9 pm. If you are going to take a 90-minute nap and struggle to sleep at night after napping, then I would pay attention to when you nap and try to align your nap to your ideal window for your circadian rhythm.
I have never really considered naps an effective sleeping tool because I can rarely fall asleep, so they were always frustrating and seemed like a waste of time. These CRPs or naps are a great way to chip away at our sleep debts and improve our recovery as athletes. For those of us who struggle to sleep, they are a blessing because you don’t have to fall asleep to gain massive benefits both mentally and physically.
Try to work on finding time/s in your day when you can plug in a 5-30-minute CRP. I hope they are as beneficial for you as they are for me.
Lastly, I have attached a link from The Ready State that goes in-depth on maximizing sleep quality and hygiene and covers a wide variety of factors that can affect sleep and performance.
Thanks,
Ryan Purtell
Director of Coaching
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