How to rest and recover like a premier league footballer: with elite sport sleep coach Nick Littlehales
Jan 17, 2025
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In this enlightening discussion, elite sports sleep coach Nick Littlehales shares his innovative techniques for optimizing rest, honed while working with top teams like Manchester United and Team Sky. He introduces the concept of 90-minute sleep cycles, advocating for strategic naps, or controlled recovery periods, to enhance athletic performance. Nick emphasizes the importance of consistent wake times and adapting sleep patterns to align with natural circadian rhythms, challenging conventional views on rest for improved recovery.
Nick Littlehales recommends structuring your day into 90-minute cycles to optimize recovery and enhance overall performance.
Emphasizing flexibility, the podcast highlights the importance of adapting sleep patterns to align with personal and natural rhythms for better rest.
Deep dives
Rethinking Sleep Duration
The notion of needing a solid eight hours of sleep in one block is challenged, as it's suggested instead to focus on shorter sleep cycles. This approach, based on polyphasic sleep patterns, advocates for dividing the day into 90-minute cycles that consider the body’s natural circadian rhythms. For example, structuring sleep into four cycles at night combined with shorter rest periods during the day can yield the same overall recovery time. This method allows individuals to customize their sleep according to personal schedules and commitments, emphasizing quality and flexibility over traditional lengthy sleep durations.
Adapting Sleep to Lifestyle
Emphasizing the importance of weekly planning rather than daily panic, the method encourages adjusting sleep and recovery patterns based on individual circumstances. By considering the total recovery cycles over a week, one can incorporate flexibility to adapt to social or professional obligations without compromising overall rest. This technique promotes a conscious approach to rest, allowing for adjustments throughout the day instead of rigid adherence to a nighttime routine. Ultimately, aligning sleep patterns with personal and natural rhythms can reduce anxiety and enhance performance, making for a more balanced daily experience.
In this bitesized episode, elite sports sleep coach Nick Littlehales reveals his groundbreaking approach to sleep and recovery. Nick has worked with a number of the biggest football clubs on the planet including Manchester united, Manchester City, Liverpool, Team Sky and medal winning Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Learn how to structure your day using 90-minute cycles and controlled recovery periods to optimise your performance, just like top athletes do. Featuring:
Nick's method of dividing the day into 90-minute cycles
The importance of a consistent wake time
How to plan sleep cycles and adapt to unexpected events
The concept of "controlled recovery periods" (CRPs) or strategic naps
Aligning sleep patterns with natural circadian rhythms
Book Release
I’m excited to announce the paperback edition of my book, Champion Thinking: Get Out of Your Own Way, Find Your Peak Performance, is now available. Published by Bloomsbury, the link is here: https://www.simonmundie.com/book
🔗 Free course on beating burnout and finding flow: https://www.simonmundie.com/beat-burnout-mini-course