In addition to proper nutrition, hydration and recovery days, sleep can be one of the top factors that can make or break your fitness performance.
In arecent studylooking at sleep quality and athletes, researchers noted that people who are in training tend to experience more sleep issues than non-athletes, due to training load and stress. The study also suggests athletes require more sleep than those who don’t work out because they have higher recovery needs.
But knowing that you should sleep and getting that sleep can be two very different things. When dreamtime proves elusive, there tends to be a slew of common sense strategies people use — yet it’s possible that, for some, those allegedly proven tactics are actually making the problem worse. Here are some habits you might be putting in place that are keeping you from getting enough shuteye:
1. TAKING MELATONIN AT THE WRONG TIME
Around sunset, your brain produces melatonin, a hormone designed to start a cascade of sleep-inducing reactions. But if you’re frazzled or anxious, the hormone might not be as abundant as you’d like. Because of that, many people turn to taking a melatonin supplement.
But they often pop it like a sleeping pill right before bed, thinking it’ll take effect immediately, according to W. Christopher Winter, MD, president of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine. Melatonin in the body tends to take around 3–4 hours, so if you’re taking it at 9 p.m., you might not sense any effects until about 1 a.m. — by then, you could be so frustrated by insomnia that you’re up watching TV instead, which will lower that melatonin back down.
2.仅当你困了
时间表变得可变，尤其是随着季节变化的变化 - 例如，您会在那些明亮的夏日之夜呆在外面 - 这可能会导致您在疲倦时撞到麻袋。但是，根据医学博士MIA Finkelston的说法，过多的可变性会使您的身体不确定何时真正入睡。
“We can handle some changes to our usual routine, but not as much as you might think,” she says. “When you go to bed only when you’re tired, you’re introducing too much unpredictability into your sleep schedule. And that can catch up with you.”
3. COUNTING SHEEP (OR ANYTHING)
Some yoga and meditation breathing techniques rely on counting each inhale and exhale, so it makes sense that you might try to import that to your sleep routine. But Winter says some people find counting to be an anxiety-provoking exercise, instead of the de-stressor it’s meant to be.
“Maybe you get anxious if you hit double digits and you’re not asleep yet,” he says. “Or, you might have fallen asleep around 30 the night before but now you’re nearly at 50 and still counting. Then you might wonder if you’re doing something wrong.”
When that happens, it can sabotage your sleep efforts. Instead of counting, he recommends visualizing a well-known process that’s calming to you. For example, one of his patients “bakes” every night — she envisions getting out the measuring cups, chopping up ingredients, arranging the bowls for flour and sugar — and has found the process so effective, she jokes that nothing ever makes it into her imagined oven.
4. CHECKING THE CLOCK
Finkelston说，尽管知道您还剩五个小时，直到您必须起床，但看着时钟似乎是一个坏习惯，这似乎是一种不好的习惯。可能会适得其反，甚至建议一些患者将闹钟放在另一个房间或壁橱里。
她说：“要认识到您剩下多少时间睡觉，您必须醒来一定程度。”“这可能足以使您摆脱周期并引起一些失眠。”
READ MORE >HOW BAD SLEEP SABOTAGES YOUR FITNESS GOALS
BETTER HABITS, BETTER SLEEP
冬季说，通常，它有助于制定不同的策略，看看什么对您有用。如果褪黑激素是您的果酱并且正在奏效，那就太好了。但是，如果您已经尝试了一周左右的时间，并且您仍在盯着天花板一个小时，请尝试将其切换。
“The last thing you want to do is try to force something to work, because then you’ll be agitated when it doesn’t,” he says. That can increase levels of cortisol — the hormone responsible for your stress response — and you’ll be back where you started.
取而代之的是，尝试实施良好的睡眠实践，而一致性是关键。限制睡觉前的屏幕时间，设置一个定期的就寝时间，并每天同时起床（是的，即使在周末，也很抱歉）。冬季建议在床前大约半小时内开始“降雨例程”，这可以帮助您向大脑发出信号，表明该放松了。
