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NBA Sleep Protocol: What to do for the playoffs
Sleep will always serve as a performance enhancing drug for athletes..
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Neuro Athletes!
We've got a great lineup of stories coming up in our Neuro Athletics newsletter, handpicked just for you. This series focuses on sleep protocols for peak performance. Read on to learn how…
Sleep deprivation leads to decreased performance
To time your sleep to reap the benefits
Using light maximizes sleep efficiency
The stranger hiding behind the curtains pulling the strings on what team will win the NBA is not the repudiated refs. It’s fatigue. With an 82-game season littered with back-to-back games, jet lag, poor recovery and sleep deprivation, players are not “giving their all” during each night out. Here’s why 👇🏽
SLEEP & PERFORMANCE
A 2011 study about the impact of “extra” sleep in college basketball players found that when athletes slept 10 or more hours a night, they performed better in physical tasks and reported increased ratings of mood, health, and overall sense of wellbeing. With nearly one-third of all adults in the United States reporting that they are sleep-deprived, the importance of getting a good night's sleep takes on tremendous significance especially for athletes competing at an NBA level.
When it comes to managing fatigue, the brain works like an algorithm, taking in all of the sensory information, which tells us how tired we are and comparing it to how much energy we have left to give. Think of it as a car computing the gas left in the tank with the current rate of miles per gallon to understand how far we can drive before we run out of fuel. But there’s another piece to the puzzle, how much risk is involved. What’s the reward when running on low energy or low fuel? How far can you get? Is it worth it?
That’s why we need to figure out ways to help players during the season to reap the benefits of sleep in order to boost the brain’s energy so they can achieve better results on the court.
Andre Iguodala credits sleeping habits for improved play on the court:
"It wasn't just the games. I practiced better, my preparation was better…..I would go to the gym at night and I felt refreshed. You're more productive, your productivity goes up. You're more useful with your time. You can actually get more done in a shorter period of time, if you're all locked in. I think sleep plays a huge part in that."
TIMING YOUR SLEEP
When a NBA player enters the game after having played 48 minutes the day before and having slept only a few measly hours on a plane, he feels the sensation of effort and pain to a much higher degree.
While a full night of slumber stabilizes emotions, a sleepless night can trigger up to a 30% rise in anxiety levels, according to new research from UC Berkeley. Therefore, the quantity of sleep doesn’t just matter, it’s the quality of sleep that takes the prize.
Timing your sleep so that you get the most from those 8 hours is critical. Did you know that the most important phase of sleep you can get is at the beginning of the night. There are really two types of sleep that are the best at making you feel “healthy” and they are ‘slow wave sleep’ (SWS), which occurs at the beginning of the night and REM (see figure below) .
During SWS, which occurs before midnight, we secrete most of our growth hormone (GH). In a previous post, I mentioned that GH fuels childhood growth and helps maintain tissues and organs throughout life, which is why maintaining its levels during adulthood is extremely important. This is why SWS is also referred to as “beauty sleep”.
LIGHT EXPOSURE
Cortisol, a steroid hormone that participates in the body’s stress response, is produced in humans by the adrenal gland. Several factors influence its release, including exposure to bright light. Chronic stress and mistimed exposure to light can deregulate cortisol release, promoting poor performance, anxiety and stress.
Many of the NBA athletes are indoors during the daytime, where they are not exposed to natural bright light but instead exposed to artificial light. They continue to see artificial light through the night while playing, training or even traveling to the next city. This artificial light disrupts the cascade of hormone regulation, impairs vision, decreases motivation and results in a host of other performance related issues.
Lebron James is no stranger to sleep technology and optimization. He occasionally uses the Whoop device but also sets the temperature in his hotel rooms at 68–70 degrees Fahrenheit (many experts cite 68 degrees as an optimal temperature for sleeping).
He also shuts off all electronic devices, which permeate blue light almost an hour before he goes to bed. Blue light disrupts the release of melatonin, the hormone responsible for sleepiness. As he drifts to sleep, his phone plays the sound of rain falling on leaves, a binaural beat that helps put his mind at rest.
In our sleep-obsessed times, the NBA is a key site where ideas about daily recovery are being revised, iterated and implemented . A pro-sleep protocol for athletes during the playoffs will not change the grueling game or travel schedules. However, it will be a start to better recovery habits.
WHAT TO READ
I have gathered some peer reviewed articles from PubMed for you to read on the science of sleep and athletic performance.
“We found significantly impaired connectivity between hippocampus and multiple brain regions after total sleep deprivation”.
“Sleep disruption is a recognized feature of all anxiety disorders. Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) slow-wave oscillations offer an ameliorating, anxiolytic benefit on these brain networks following sleep”.
JOB OPENINGS
EXCITING NEWS!!!!!
Neuro Athletics has just released it’s first ever job board to help sports specific organisations find the best talent. Below are some job openings posted within the last week:
Search more job here and feel free to post any if you want to hire the best talent who combine their love for sport and business.