Why every athlete should sleep and supplement with Omega-3 fatty acids

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Neuro Athletes!

We've got a great lineup of stories in this issue of our Neuro Athletics newsletter, handpicked just for you. Read on to learn how...

• Sleep increases human growth hormone and improves reaction training speed

• Omega-3 fatty acids are an athletes hidden weapon for brain health

• Why HRV is a useful tool for understanding readiness to perform

MENTAL STATUS

A brief overview of the latest news in mental performance within the NBA, NFL, MLS.

1. Cavaliers' Kevin Love sorry for on-court tantrum | NBA.com For the last 10 years of coaching the greatest athletes in the world one thing I have also said is “you want to optimise your brain and learn the tools necessary so you can use them at your disposal on game day”. One tool we use at Neuro Athletics is an anchoring tool where athletes learn how to redirect their negative thoughts before it leads to anger.

2. Titans fourth-round pick Rashad Weaver charged with assault in April incident. Just days after the Titans selected Rashad Weaver in the fourth round of the 2021 NFL Draft, it is being reported that the former Pitt pass rusher is facing a count of simple assault after allegedly punching pregnant woman.

3. El Brujo will now miss next two games, maybe more after red card against NYCFC. Jose Martinez was sent off in the 16th minute after a yellow card was turned red after video review.

SLEEP

You produce a steady flow of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) during the day but when you hit stage 3 of NREM sleep (deep sleep) your body produces a large amount of it. Growth hormone (GH) is a small protein that is made by the pituitary gland and secreted into the bloodstream. It’s production is controlled by a complex set of hormones produced in the hypothalamus and is extremely important as it boosts muscle growth and increases athletic performance, while helping you recover from injury and disease by repairing tissue and up-regulating metabolism.

Not only that, deep sleep makes up a quarter of your overall sleep so if you are sleeping two hours less than you should be every night you’re missing out on a lot of HGH and effectively stunting your potential growth.

Therefore, getting an adequate amount of deep sleep is one of the best strategies to enhance your long-term HGH production.

If you’re not getting enough sleep hours, chances are your body is not getting enough time to get through multiple cycles of Stage 3 sleep and, therefore, not releasing the optimal amount of HGH resulting in a decrease in many functions that are vital f

or athletic peak performance.

Think of HGH like a natural fountain of youth that the body releases under optimal sleep circumstances.

Every single day you have a chance at increasing your athletic performance by a mere 1% by optimising your sleep. Don’t let this pass you by.

“But when you get in that good sleep, you just wake up, and you feel fresh. You don’t need an alarm clock. You just feel like, ‘Okay. I can tackle this day at the highest level” - Lebron James on sleep.

BRAIN HEALTH

Omega-3 fatty acids are essential fatty acids that are required by the human body. There are three main types of omega-3 fatty acids:

1. Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) Found in flaxseed oil and chia seed oil

2. Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)

3. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)In short: ALA⇒ EPA⇒ DHA

Your body isn’t good at producing omega-3s. That’s why they’re called essential fatty acids—you have to get them from food or supplements.

In my humble opinion, I truly believe every athlete of all levels should be supplementing with this EPA/DHA.

Omega-3 fatty acids lower inflammation - which causes tissue damage as well as plays role in cancer - it increases HDL and lowers triglycerides, and it plays a very important role in cell membrane fluidity, which is critical for neurons because the important function of neurotransmitters depend on cell membrane fluidity (neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine which play a role in focus and attention).

EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) are long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (O-3s) that are abundant in fish, shellfish, and some algae and genetically engineered plants. Here are some benefits of EPA alone:

• Anti-inflammatory – The EPA is also able to produce a whole series of molecules that we call resolvins, because they resolve inflammation

• Helps cellular metabolism run more smoothly – when EPA becomes incorporated into cell membranes, it changes the flexibility/ fluidity of the membrane which changes the way the enzymes that live in the membranes work in such ways that makes cellular metabolism run more smoothly

• More on EPA can be found here.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an essential omega-3 fatty acid, promotes health and development of the brain. DHA crosses the blood-brain barrier either by passive diffusion or active transport. 

About twenty percent of the brain’s dry weight is made of omega-3 fatty acids, particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) from neuron membranes.

To date, the majority of studies investigating the prevalence rate of depression among athletes have been conducted with college athletes. Findings from these studies suggest that the prevalence rate of depression among college athletes ranges from as low as 15.6% to as high as 21% 1. On the basis of these prevalence rates, as many as one in five athletes may be depressed. The Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acid ratio has a profound effect on mood and depression.

A meta-analysis of studies investigating the therapeutic value of omega-3 fatty acids suggest that supplemental omega-3 fatty acids in conjunction with antidepressant therapies offer the greatest promise in treating the symptoms of depression.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to measure your omega-3 index. You can do that here.

To increase absorption into the brain, it’s best to consume the phospholipid form of DHA (found in fish, fish roe, krill oil, and fish eggs) rather than the other, less-absorbed, forms of DHA found in fish oil supplements 

LONGEVITY

I’m sure you have all heard about heart rate variability so let’s zoom in and have a look at what it is and how effective it is for an athlete.

HRV measures the specific changes in time (i.e., variability) between successive heartbeats.

What this means, is that although your heart might beat at 60 beats per minute, those beats are not happening perfectly every second on the second. There is variation, and that’s a good thing. More variation generally means that the parasympathetic branch of your nervous system, the “rest and digest” branch of the autonomic nervous system, is doing its job as a regulator in your body. 

There are two primary reasons why athletes or the coaches of athletes should be tracking this data:

1. “Readiness”- In a normal, healthy situation, HRV should increase during relaxing activities, for example meditation or sleep, when the parasympathetic nervous system should dominate. On the other hand, HRV naturally decreases during stress. So tracking your readiness with an app like this before going out to train can be a reliable predictor of how much effort you should/ shouldn’t exert to minimise risk of injury and/ or illness.

2. Real time feedback- one of the greatest yet surprising features of HRV is the ability to view what impact a glass of wine had on my nervous system or what one bad night of sleep does to my metabolism and my immunity. Watching your HRV as an elite athlete can give you an edge and a boost in performance. After an intense workout, HRV will be lower. When your HRV returns to normal, you've fully recovered from your workout, which tells you it's safe to exercise again and helps you avoid overtraining however, in general, a high HRV is associated with improved physiological functioning, and thus improved athletic performance.

"What gets measured gets managed." - Peter Ducker

Here is a post I did a while ago on my own HRV.

I hope this email helps you on your journey to optimising for better sleep so. you can perform better, think faster and live longer.

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