Ep. 36: How to Supercharge Your Sleep with Nick Littlehales, Sleep Coach to the World's Best Athletes
Sep 29, 2015
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Nick Littlehales, Sleep Coach to the World's Best Athletes, shares practical tips on optimizing sleep. Topics include setting up the sleep environment, choosing the right bedding and mattress, sleep duration and consistency, temperature optimization, supplementation, and the impact of sleep on relationships.
Optimizing sleep conditions and having a consistent sleep routine are key for optimal performance.
Creating an optimal sleep environment includes keeping the room cool, using blackout curtains, and maintaining a consistent sleep duration.
Choosing the right mattress and pillow that align with body shape and promote comfort and support is crucial for quality sleep.
Deep dives
Optimizing Sleep Conditions with Elite Sleep Coach
This podcast episode features an interview with a world-renowned sleep coach who has worked with elite athletes and sports teams. He emphasizes the importance of optimizing sleep conditions for optimal performance. He discusses the significance of having a consistent sleep routine and the benefits of sleeping in 90-minute cycles. He explains the importance of finding the right mattress that supports the body and maintains a comfortable temperature for quality sleep. He also suggests using dawn light simulators to wake up naturally with natural sunlight. Overall, he provides practical tips for improving sleep quality and highlights the impact of sleep on overall performance and health.
The Journey of a Sleep Coach
The sleep coach shares his background and journey to becoming a sleep coach for elite athletes. He explains how his interest in sleep and his background in the bedding industry led him to work with sports teams. He describes the lack of sleep knowledge and neglect of sleep in sports and how he started educating athletes and coaching teams on sleep hygiene. He shares his experiences working with various athletes and the influence his work had on sleep awareness in the sports world. He emphasizes the importance of sleep for both athletes and the general population.
Optimizing Sleep Environment and Sleep Duration
The sleep coach discusses the importance of creating an optimal sleep environment. He suggests keeping the room cool, preferably around 18 degrees Celsius or 64 degrees Fahrenheit. He advises having a bed that is cooler than body temperature and using blankets for warmth. He recommends using blackout curtains to ensure a dark sleeping environment. He also highlights the significance of maintaining a consistent sleep duration, ideally around eight hours in a 24-hour period, and sleeping in 90-minute cycles. The coach mentions the benefits of taking short naps during the day to improve alertness and performance.
Choosing the Right Mattress and Pillow
The sleep coach provides insights into choosing the right mattress and pillow for quality sleep. He advises individuals to consider their specific physical profiles, such as height, weight, and allergies when selecting a mattress. He recommends mattresses that align with body shape and promote breathability and hypoallergenic materials. He suggests using shallow pillows to maintain proper alignment of the neck and spine and to avoid raising body temperature during sleep. He emphasizes the importance of finding a mattress and pillow that promote comfort and support for a restful sleep.
The Importance of Fresh Linen for Better Sleep
Changing your bed linen frequently, ideally twice a week, can significantly improve the quality of your sleep. Fresh linen feels warmer, crisper, and more comfortable, leading to a better period of sleep. The microfiber material is recommended for bedding as it is easy to wash, dries quickly, and does not heat up the body. Athletes often use multiple sets of linen to ensure a fresh set each night.
Creating an Optimal Sleep Environment for Better Recovery
Optimizing your sleep environment plays a crucial role in enhancing mental and physical recovery. It is important to remove any distractions or overstimulating elements from the bedroom. Focus on creating a space that promotes relaxation and recovery, with minimal exposure to artificial light and technology. Pay attention to the size and comfort of your mattress, ensuring enough space for both you and your partner to turn away from each other during sleep. The goal is to have a private sanctuary dedicated to rest and recovery, allowing you to wake up refreshed and ready to perform.
In this episode, we’re going to dive deep - really deep - into how you can actually optimize your sleep from a practical perspective, as we host the man responsible for making sure the world's best athletes are sleeping properly - Nick Littlehales. We’re going to learn how to set up your sleep environment, when it’s best to sleep, which positions are healthier, how much is enough, how to troubleshoot sleep issues, and what factors make the biggest difference. Just to give you guys a fair bit of warning, it’s a rather a long interview, and we do take a little while to warm up and get into the groove of things. We spend probably about 25 or more minutes just talking about how to identify your sleep needs and the type of mattress and pillows.... So yeah, when I say we go deep, I really mean it. Stay the course and listen through to the end, though, because we cover a ton of ground in the second half of the episode, and there are a number of surprising takeaways and bits of homework that could dramatically impact the quality of your life.
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