It’s set to be a fantastic summer of sport with the Wimbledon Championships, the Men’s Cricket World Cup, the Ashes, and the Women’s Football World Cup taking place over the coming months. Such events often inspire the public to dust off their sports gear and get active. There are so many ways to improve your sports performance but one failsafe that all the experts agree on? Getting good quality sleep.
Taking sleep and recovery seriously can help you to gain a competitive edge and improve overall sports performance. That's why many athletes and sportspeople work with sleep and wellbeing experts, along with their team of nutritionists and trainers.
Our sleep experts at Marshall & Stewart have put together their top reasons why quality sleep improves your sports performance – whatever your sporting level:
- Good quality sleep improves performance, reduces stress chemicals in the body, naturally increases the human growth hormone, and enhances the rate of recovery.
- Studies show that athletes who increase their sleeping time from an average of 7-8 hours to 9-10 hours a night significantly improve speed and stamina in their sport.
- Sleep is a powerful natural performance enhancer for your mind and body – great for split-second intuitive decision making which is a vital skill in any sport.
- Quality sleep helps to shape muscle memory. This is where continued repetition of a body movement becomes automatic and ingrained in your memory.
- In addition to helping you physically, good sleep also maintains and improves waking mental processing. It improves cognitive brain alertness and function. You’ll often feel this if you have a poor night’s sleep, you’ll wake up feeling groggy and lacking concentration.
- Good sleep supports muscle growth and the mechanisms that store and restore energy in muscles. This helps to improve sports performance and shorten muscle recovery time – crucial when training.
- Regular good quality sleep also restores energy in brain cells – enabling you to stay alert and make informed decisions.
Whether you’re a sportsperson or not, when you sleep your body and muscles should be completely supported by your mattress to enable them to relax and recuperate from the day. A good quality, supportive mattress and good quality pillows to support your head and neck will facilitate this, allowing you to wake up refreshed and ready for the day.
At Marshall & Stewart, we have a wealth of experience in the bed industry. Over the years, we have developed a bed consultation service to help our customers find the right bed for them. Much like visiting a tailor, our bed consultation service ensures you find the best quality mattress to suit your sleeping preferences and needs. We cover everything from spring tension, size of bed, support level, mattress materials, and the look and style of the mattress to ensure your new bed is uniquely yours. We also look at your lifestyle and analyse your current sleep patterns to help inform the consultation.
Call us on 020 7099 6131 or visit us in-store to find out more.
