Sleep and professional sports. Does it really matter?
The Seattle Seahawks think so. The Seahawks travel longer than any other NFL team in the league due to geography.
They take their sleep science seriously. Their 40 players wear devices which track the number of hours and depth of their sleep. Sam Ramsden, the Seahawks trainer, says “I’ve always had a belief that sleep is one of the main ways your body recovers, Some of the best players on the team are the best sleepers.”
NBA players nap
Steve Nash hails from Victoria BC Canada, and is a former SMUS student, as well as 2x MVP and 8x NBA all star! He also naps and claims napping helped him get through the season more efficiently.
Both NBA and NHL players like to nap – likely due to their hectic schedules which find them in different cities regularly, and often leaving town late at night, along with early morning practices. Sometimes they may not get in to their hotel room until 3am, and practice at 9am. We agree, who wouldn’t need a nap?
Reduced Reaction Time
A Harvard study found that pulling an all-nighter could reduce reaction times by 300% and take days to recover.
Research has show proper sleep results in:
- Enhanced ability to capacity to cope with stress.
- An increase in human growth hormone and testosterone
- Enhancement in both recovery and performance
Speaking of sleep and professional sports performance, here’s a interactive reaction time test to see how awake you are. Enjoy.
Be The Best You Can Be
Of course most of us are not professional athletes. But, we all want to be the best we can, at whatever we do. Maybe we want to be a better parent, teacher, lawyer, engineer, customer service provider. In order for us to be the best we can be, we need to get appropriate and quality sleep. Sleep can help our performance at work.
The next time you get grief for napping, just say you’re training like a pro.
If you are a professional athlete – cool! You need to get on one of our Model 9 mattresses.