EXERCISE SCIENCE
Faster, Higher, Stronger: Sleep and Athletic & Fitness Performance
By Mike Bracko, Ed.D., CSCS, FACSM
activity. For the next several hours, while the sun is gone, I'm going to become unconscious, temporarily losing command over everything I know and understand. When the sun returns, I will resume my life.”
G The online Merriam-Webster dictionary defines sleep as “the
natural periodic suspension of consciousness during which the pow- ers of the body are restored.” For fitness and sports performance,
30 canfitpro JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017
eorge Carlin had a funny quote about sleep:
“People say 'I'm
going to sleep now,’ as if it were nothing. But it's really a bizarre
we want sleep to be our best friend and training partner. It could be argued that it is the sleep our clients get that improves fitness and sports performance, and to a lesser extent the training. Mah (2010) indicates sleep is an important factor for athletes’ daily training program.
Overview of Sleep There are five stages of sleep through which we cycle in a pattern called “sleep architecture.” In sleep architecture there are seven cycles, each lasting 1 – 1.5 hours. We start in stage one then move through the other four stages until we go into stage one again, and the cycle continues for the duration of the night. Stage one is an interim between consciousness and sleep where the body starts to lose muscle tone, the muscles twitch, and there is a loss of self-awareness. Stage two is a light dreamless sleep and preparation for deep sleep where heart rate, body temperature, and brain activity slow down. Stage three is the beginning of
deep sleep where the body starts to rebuild and repair. It is also the start of the secretion of human growth hormone. Stage four (and stage three) is the deepest and most restorative sleep, during which physical & mental energy is replenished. In stage four, blood
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