“When we sleep out of sync with our own biorhythms, we’ll have lower-quality sleep and feel less rested.” For example, when night owls try to get more sleep by turning in early, they may get anxious and frustrated, not sleepy. “Everyone is genetically predisposed to get their deepest, most restorative sleep during a certain time window-some of us wake early, and some naturally stay up later,” says Breus. Sync your sleep to your body’s natural clock Instead, put your focus on these slow-wave sleep-boosting habits. Ultimately, stressing about sleep is counterproductive-the more you worry about it, the fewer zzz’s you’re likely to get. Schedule bedtimes to help meet your sleep goals and analyze your sleep trends over 14 days. But they can illuminate patterns: Variations in the amount of deep sleep-say, suddenly logging just 30 minutes of it when you usually get 60-or shifts in when deep sleep occurs (like at the beginning of the night versus the end of it) that last longer than a few days may suggest that long-term sleep deprivation or another issue, like increased stress, a new medication, or too much caffeine, is affecting your SWS. Wearables and under-the-mattress trackers can’t measure sleep stages accurately, says sleep specialist Michael Breus, Ph.D., author of The Power of When: Discover Your Chronotype. And it can protect mood, health, and athletic performance, even when we can’t sleep as much as we’d like, says Reed.ĭigital sleep trackers can help you gauge SWS-though not in the way you might think. Tracking sleep stages is complex and imprecise outside of a sleep lab, so the best way to ensure you get enough SWS is to make sure you clock higher quality sleep: Time spent in deep sleep is a better predictor of athletic performance than overall sleep time, according to a 2016 study of NCAA athletes. It’s difficult to set a baseline for how much deep sleep you need, because it can vary day to day, says certified sleep health educator Martin Reed, M.Ed., founder of Insomnia Coach. Research on marathon runners shows that the body experiences higher proportions of SWS during post-race sleep, a finding that supports the role of SWS in recovery after metabolic stress. Without enough SWS, the body can’t repair the damage sustained during training and competition, says Alinat. That’s likely because reductions in SWS are linked to lower levels of human growth hormone (HGH), a compound that affects the body’s ability to repair muscle mass, bones and tendons, says hormone therapy specialist Carissa Alinat, PhD, APRN, founder and CEO of. Research now shows that even modest deficits in SWS are linked to declines in athletic performance. Also called deep sleep or stage N3 sleep, SWS helps you recover from one day’s workout and prepare for the next. During this stage of sleep, memories are consolidated, learning is enhanced, and the brain is cleansed of toxins that may contribute to degenerative brain disease. SWS is named for the slow brain waves it creates on electroencephalogram (EEG) tests in sleep labs, which are a sign that the brain has shifted into a repair/prepare mode. Why is slow-wave sleep important for athletes? In fact, many experts say restorative, high-quality SWS is as important to your training as proper nutrition or hydration. Slow-wave sleep (SWS) is increasingly prized for its ability to help athletes recover from heavy training and hard racing. A growing body of research suggests runners who want to get fast need more slow-wave sleep-the deepest, most restorative stage of slumber.
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