Unlock Your Recovery: Sleep

Hey Just Tri babes!

It’s no secret that a comprehensive, holistic approach to sports performance will unlock your potential… especially for female athletes. In order to perform consistently you must align your training with your menstrual cycle and recover quickly.

Recently, there have been professional female athletes raising the issue about their inconsistent performances across their cycles and pleading for more research funding in the performance physiology field for active (reproductive) women. I applaud these female athletes for speaking up about their experiences and symptoms because they are not speaking out in a self-serving manner; they're doing it to advocate for the entire female population.

First, I stand with all the frustrated female athletes and agree that there needs to be more research done on active women and the impact of our menstrual cycles… BUT it needs to be taken a step further because there must also be a better translation and education of the research into practice.

That’s why Just Tri Performance was created – a platform and a community to share knowledge and practical application with young female athletes and their coaches. This knowledge will make them more aware of the impact of their menstrual cycles on every aspect of their lives. This empowerment will encourage them to take ownership and be more mindful and intentional with their daily/weekly behaviors throughout each month.

This blog is part of a series called “The Controllables”, which focuses on fundamental areas that impact performance:

• Sleep
• Nutrition
• Hydration
• Exercise
• Stress Management
• Immune Function
• Environment
• Mindset
• Menstrual Cycle

 As discussed in previous blogs, female sex hormones (i.e. estrogen and progesterone) fluctuate across the phases of our cycle thus changing a female's physiology and her body’s needs in order to optimally perform and recover. There are a lot of components that can contribute to recovery. Some of our behaviors and habits reduce inflammation and promote regeneration (while some do the opposite). The coolest thing is that, all of these behaviors are in your complete control and can be leveraged when applied appropriately. One of the most important behaviors is sleep.

Before diving into the sleep stages, sleep consistency, and sleep efficiency, you need to understand how to measure your body’s recovery status. The major indicator for recovery is heart rate variability.

Time for School

What is Heart Rate Variability (HRV)?

HRV is the time interval between heartbeats and the best objective measure for physical fitness and determining your body’s readiness and recovery status.

The Nerdy Stuff

Your heart is a muscle and it is controlled by the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS has two (2) branches: the sympathetic and parasympathetic.

- The sympathetic controls the “fight-or-flight” response (i.e. elevations in heart rate (HR).

- The parasympathetic controls the “rest-and-digest” response (i.e. decreases HR).

The time interval variation (HRV) is a combination of each branch’s control (i.e. input).

When the variation is high (i.e. high HRV), your heart is able to respond effectively to each branch’s signaling thus indicating adaptability, system synchronicity, and a higher recovery status.

When the variation is low (i.e. low HRV), your heart is unable to effectively respond to parasympathetic input and that indicates the body is in a suboptimal state and needs more time to recover.

HRV is highly individualized and you shouldn’t compare your HRV with other people, only to your own baseline and long-term trend.

Upward HRV trends indicate adaptability and increased fitness. A downward trend may be a sign of acute overtraining, illness, poor nutrition or hydration, or insufficient sleep.

Factors that impact Heart Rate Variability:

Training factors:

• Volume
• Intensity
• New or unfamiliar stimuli
• Rest and workout day balance

Lifestyle factors:

• Sleep habits & circadian rhythm
• Diet & nutrition
• Alcohol
• Stress

Biological factors:

• Age
• Gender
• Genetics
• Chronic health conditions

*Most fitness trackers measure HRV but if you’re looking for one of the best on the market, buy a WHOOP strap.

Now, SLEEP

Getting enough sleep is an essential aspect to sports performance and recovery. A commonly accepted goal is to get at least 8 hours of sleep each night. If you’re an active female, it’s recommended to get more (i.e. 8-10 hours). Remember, sleep quality and duration impact your readiness and recovery so you need to make sleep a priority.

Sleep efficiency (SE) is the percentage of time you spend in bed that you are actually asleep.

• An average human has 94.4% SE and it decreases as you age.
• Aging men’s SE decreases more compared to women.
• SE increases with moderate exercise days.

Poor SE is caused because you’re unable to fall asleep. The time is takes you to fall asleep is called sleep latency.

Sleep Efficiency across the Menstrual Cycle phases:

- Late Luteal Phase = low

- Early Menstruation Phase = low

- Late Menstruation Phase = moderate

- Follicular Phase = high

- Ovulation Phase = high

- Early Luteal Phase = high

 Sleep Stages

There are 4 stages of sleep that form sleep cycles:

1. Awake
2. Light sleep
3. Deep sleep or Slow Wave Sleep (SWS)
4. REM sleep

Deep and REM sleep are the two restorative stages of sleep where your body and mind repair themselves.

Deep sleep restores the body physically. During this stage, the majority of human growth hormone (~95%) is produced and circulated. It’s important to keep this in perspective…

You don’t get stronger, faster, more explosive, etc. when you’re exercising. You’re actually breaking your muscles down while you’re working out. Muscles are built back up, reinforced, and restored during deep sleep.

Getting enough sleep is essential to maximizing potential gains from training. It’s recommended to get at least 15-25% of deep sleep from your total night’s sleep (~75-80min).

REM sleep (aka Rapid Eye Movement) is when you get your mental restoration. During this stage, your brain converts short-term memories from the day into long-term or learned ones. REM sleep regulates mood. It’s recommended to get at least 20-25% of your total sleep in REM (~90min).

Sleep consistency is the best way to improve sleep quality – to go to bed and wake up at similar times each day. Consistently falling asleep and waking will maintain your circadian rhythm (i.e. your body’s 24-hour clock), which is vital for overall health and function.

As sleep consistency increases, so does your sleep efficiency. As your sleep efficiency increases so do the percentages of deep and REM sleep. If you’re improving your mental and physical restoration, you’ll increase your capacity to take on more strain during training and performance efforts. ALL leading to improved performance potential.

Behaviors that increase and decrease sleep quality:

Positive impact:

• Sleeping in your own bed
• Hydration
• Wearing bluelight blocking glasses
• Reading in bed
• Wearing a sleep mask

Negative impact:

• Sickness
• Alcohol
• Using a screened device in bed
• Sharing a bed
• Injury
• Late meal
• Stress

Beyond sleep consistency, there are a ton of other actions you can take to optimize your sleep like establishing a bedtime routine, and creating the perfect sleep environment.

If you’re interested in learning more, purchase one of the three JTP Membership options to gain access to the "High Performance Sleep Tips" resource in the Just Tri Performance library.

Unlocking peak performance will require intentional behavior change. I hope this information helped you understand you can develop strategies and routines to optimize your biological sleep. Meeting your sleep need is a crucial step to consistently leveraging your skills, expertise, and genetic potential.

Thank you for taking time to read my blog!

Have a great week! And as always, Just Tri!!

Yours in Sport,

Lindsay

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