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Sleep is often described as the best medicine and one of the most important means of recovery. This crucial rest phase deserves more attention than we usually give it.

Amateur athletes often devote a lot of time and energy towards optimising their training in order to get faster. As the training increases throughout their career, the recovery period often isn’t increased to the same extent. In fact, it's quite the opposite! The recovery phase gets sacrificed to make way for training. The key to better performance and optimum recovery here is high-quality sleep.

The importance of sleep for recovery

Every training session disrupts our equilibrium, which takes time to balance out again. Restoring this balance is crucial for progression and avoiding injury. Good sleep plays a key role here. It allows our body to recover from the physical and mental exertion of training, repair muscle fibres and build up energy.

We can impact the quality of our sleep

We have a relatively significant impact on whether our night is long and restorative enough by following a daily routine. Sports scientist, Dr Tierney, has identified positive and negative influences on sleep and assessed them using a scale to make their significance and impacts easier to understand. Based on his research, he recommends ‘tackling the extremes before thinking about other strategies’.

Conclusion:

Sleep, which is one of the most important means of recovery, shouldn't be underestimated. In fact, we are able to control many aspects and should try to do everything we can to ensure that the night and following day is successful and regenerative. This starts with a consistent waking up and bedtime routine, ensuring sufficient intake of fluids and a healthy diet through to ensuring the optimum sleeping conditions with practical nightwear and bed linen.

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