Sleep and regeneration: how to sleep properly to get the most out of your performance

What happens during the regeneration phase?

Not only muscle strength and endurance are important for our performance in sport, but also our cognitive abilities and mental strength. If we can't concentrate and can't get our act together, then we won't be able to achieve our best performance.

This makes it all the more important that our neural network regenerates during sleep, processes information gained during the day and stores it in our memory. This is the only way we are able to absorb new impressions the next day. The lymphatic system is also active while we sleep. It ensures that the toxic compounds of dead cells that form in the brain during the day are removed. This means you are fit, focused and ready for your training the next day.

Getting enough sleep is also essential for internalizing psychomotor processes. Basketball players, for example, can significantly increase their scoring rate by getting enough sleep(2). Something that can most likely also be transferred to endurance sports such as running and cycling, as increased running performance has also been observed.

While we sleep at night, different hormones are released than when we are awake. Various growth hormones, such as somatotropin, ensure the body's longitudinal growth and protein biosynthesis - the formation of new proteins. This is important for building our muscles.

However, protein biosynthesis also plays a much more important role. Proteins are the basic building blocks of all cells. Their formation during sleep is crucial for cell regeneration throughout the body. If we don't get enough sleep, not enough growth hormones are released. This impairs cell regeneration and, as a result, our performance.

Lack of sleep and its consequences for athletic performance

If there is a lack of quality or quantity of sleep, your body cannot recover sufficiently. Your cognitive abilities suffer, psychomotor processes are not internalized and your cells cannot regenerate sufficiently. As a result, you are simply not physically fit enough to perform at your best and become much more susceptible to injuries during sport.

A lack of sleep also means excessive stress for your body. This causes additional strain and increases the drop in performance. The immune system can also suffer from chronic sleep deprivation. You become more susceptible to infectious diseases, which weaken the body and in turn prevent or at least significantly restrict training. This puts you in a cycle in which your performance continues to decline.

Continuous training alone is therefore not enough for strong athletic performance, as sport is only one of the three important cornerstones of balanced training. The other two factors should not be underestimated: Nutrition and sleep. Regeneration, which mainly takes place during sleep, is just as much a part of a healthy and successful training routine as sport itself, because without it not only the body suffers, but also top sporting results. So how much sleep do you need to be fit and achieve your best sporting performance?

How much sleep does an athlete need to regenerate?

First of all, it is important to understand that not all sleep is the same. During the night, we go through several sleep cycles that comprise different sleep phases:

• Falling asleep phase (approx. 5 %): This is where the transition from wakefulness to superficial sleep takes place.

• Light sleep phase/stable sleep phase (44-55 %): Here you are sleeping stably, but not yet deeply. Sleep is still slightly disturbed.

• Deep sleep phase (15-20 %): In deep sleep, your muscles relax, your heartbeat slows down and your blood pressure drops.

• REM phase (20-25 %): The muscles are relaxed and you experience particularly vivid dreams during this phase. This is shown by the rapid movements of the eyes in phases (Rapid Eye Movement, hence the name: REM).

Ideally, we go through between 4 and 7 cycles every night, each lasting around 90 to 110 minutes. For athletes, at least 5 sleep cycles, i.e. 7.5 hours, are recommended, but depending on the intensity of the training, the requirement can be significantly higher. Both the deep sleep phase and the REM phase are particularly important. This is where the majority of regeneration processes take place, as well as neuronal restructuring and recovery from hard workouts.

It is not only the duration of sleep that is important, but also the quality of sleep. If we keep waking up, the last two phases are delayed and often fall short.

The sleep routine of sports professionals

How we achieve sufficient quality sleep varies from person to person. Biathlete Janina Hettich relies on relaxation sessions during the day, such as yoga, progressive muscle relaxation or 30-minute short sleep sessions. When it comes to sleep routines, the top athlete recommends consistent sleeping and waking times and advises against going to bed on a full stomach. A cool room temperature of 16 - 18 °C is also important for restful sleep, as is a relaxation routine about an hour before going to bed. The professional athlete also avoids caffeine after midday and excessive alcohol consumption in the evening.

For Swiss triathlete Ronnie Schildknecht, the quality of sleep is also the most important factor. He makes sure he gets at least 7-8 hours of good sleep with a darkened room and a cool indoor climate. European volleyball champion Tanja Hüberli focuses on consistency and comfort in her sleep routine. She tries to go to bed at the same time every day and switches off her cell phone half an hour before going to sleep. Then she only reads and listens to music. It is also important to the top athlete that the bedroom is as cozy as possible and that there are only a few things in it. No distractions for the eyes, more rest for the body.

Tennis player Roger Federer and former sprint star Usain Bolt, on the other hand, focus on quantity when it comes to their sleep routine. According to their own statements, they allow themselves ten hours of sleep per night and a further two hours during the day, divided into several small sleep units.

The world-famous footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has a rather unconventional sleep routine. Instead of sleeping all night, he says he divides his regeneration phase into 5 times 90 minutes throughout the day. This gives him a total of 7.5 hours of sleep every day.

With their personal sleep routines, top athletes ensure sufficient regeneration and contribute to their best performances. However, it is not only our sleep that influences our performance, but also vice versa: our training routine affects our sleep.

How does sport affect our sleep?

It has long been known that regular exercise and sport improve the quality of sleep. A joint study by Oregon State University and Bellarmine University in the USA shows that athletes sleep significantly better and more intensively. According to the study, people who do at least 2.5 hours of moderate or high-intensity exercise per week can improve their sleep quality by 65%3. Exercise increases the number of light and deep sleep phases in particular. Sport is therefore an ideal supplement to the treatment of sleep problems.

However, there are a few things to bear in mind, as anyone who tries to fall asleep more easily with a jogging session at midnight will be disappointed. During exercise, the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol are released, which drive our bodies and ensure good performance during sport. However, the hormones also impair the body's own production of the sleep hormone melatonin. As a result, athletes who train late at night often find it difficult to fall asleep in the evening and often do not sleep through the night. This disrupts sleep regeneration, which is so important after exercise.

The best time for training depends on you personally and your chronotype. If you are more of a lark, i.e. an early riser, then morning exercise will probably suit you best. On the other hand, owls, i.e. late risers, find it harder to get out of bed in the morning and like to postpone their training until the afternoon.

Both are perfectly fine. It's just important that hard workouts, such as HIIT training and endurance sports, such as jogging, don't take place too late. Around 3 to 4 hours before going to bed, you should no longer challenge your body too much so as not to disrupt your melatonin production. Your autonomic nervous system can also no longer calm down sufficiently after late night training sessions. This results in problems falling asleep and staying asleep.

However, light to moderate exercise such as walking, leisurely cycling, gentle yoga or stretching exercises can be done 60 to 90 minutes before bedtime. These types of exercise can help to regulate the nervous system and reduce stress, thereby stimulating regeneration. They are therefore particularly suitable for supporting a healthy sleep routine.

Sleep, regeneration and sport - a balanced interaction

If you want to achieve strong performance in sport, you need to pay attention to much more than a balanced training plan. Regeneration is at least as important, which is promoted by a healthy and restful sleep routine in addition to a balanced diet. Regular sleeping and waking times as well as rest periods before going to bed help you to regulate your sleep and make better progress with your training.

Sleep, regeneration and sport interact, as regular exercise also improves the quality of your sleep in the long term. Sport helps with recovery and regeneration and healthy sleep in turn ensures that you are fit and perform well. Incidentally, in the animal kingdom, the high performers among the animals, the lions, sleep a full 20 hours a day. It seems to work for them.