{"id":222244073,"date":"2022-01-31T14:00:16","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T12:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quieton.com\/?p=222244073"},"modified":"2022-02-04T15:43:37","modified_gmt":"2022-02-04T13:43:37","slug":"athlete-recovery-the-importance-of-good-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quieton.com\/fr\/athlete-recovery-the-importance-of-good-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Athlete recovery – The importance of good sleep"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sleep being the single most important cornerstone<\/a> of anyone\u2019s health and wellbeing is nowadays common knowledge. Because of the added strain, the importance of sufficient and good quality sleep is emphasized in people who are engaged in sports – even more so in those who go the extra mile to become athletes.<\/p>\n

Becoming great in something usually requires paying attention to the things that enable said greatness. In this sense one could ponder whether it\u2019s even possible to become an athlete without good sleep, let alone continue as one. To most athletes the answer is self-evident, but this doesn\u2019t take away the challenges. Securing good night\u2019s sleep can easily be neglected by especially young athletes, and the things that affect sleep quality don\u2019t pick their targets.<\/p>\n

With this article, we’ll go trough the following topics:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The challenge of athlete recovery<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Recovery through compensation<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Recovery in a downward spiral<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Training over with overtraining?<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. The importance of good sleep<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Remedies for athlete recovery<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/h2>\n

    The challenge of athlete recovery<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Everyone experiences periods in their lives during which it seems to be impossible to find time to sleep enough, at least without a huge effort or by leaving something undone. The key factor that sets an athlete’s challenges with sleep aside is that the requirement of programming and optimization is incorporated in their everyday lives, and it can sometimes be quite extreme. As the world\u2019s top ten athletes of certain sports can be separated by mere hundreds of a second, anything and everything can truly make a difference. This way the supporting measures need to be top notch.<\/p>\n

    \"Athlete<\/p>\n

    In part a highly organized schedule can work as a valuable aid in guaranteeing sufficient sleeping time. On the other hand, having to plan everything to a detail in an effort to reap the optimal benefits leaves one quite vulnerable to possible problems. The tighter the schedule the less margin there is for errors or setbacks in recovery means.<\/p>\n

    It is also good to note that not all athletes or even professional athletes engage in their sport for their actual living. Depending on how much of a niche the sport is in the athlete\u2019s country of origin, not to mention in the world, the athlete may be required to study or work on the side. This is prone to accumulate the overall stress burden to a state where the sleep and recovery gets further challenged. More on this as you read along.<\/p>\n

    <\/h2>\n

    Recovery through compensation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    A common misconception is that pumping iron makes you linearly stronger and a jog more durable. Even though neither of these results would happen without the actual performance, the mechanism is not as straightforward.<\/p>\n

    The whole concept of physical exercise is based on shocking the body\u2019s resilience. If a person\u2019s fitness is pictured with a curve, an exercise actually drops the curve below the preceding level. In other words, gets one in worse shape than before the exercise. If, and only if, the necessary recovery measures, such as a sufficient amount of nutrients and good quality sleep, are implemented, the body recuperates back to \u2018normal\u2019 and even past that. In other words, the curve climbs to a bit higher level than before. This is called supercompensation.<\/p>\n

    \"Athlete<\/p>\n

    As the fitness curve is zoomed out from a singular supercompensation event and examined on a scale of months, the median of the curve should be moderately ascending. At least if the training is goal-oriented and aims for better performance.<\/p>\n

    <\/h2>\n

    Recovery in a downward spiral<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    The ugly twin of the ascending supercompensation curve is of course the descending one. This is the result of insufficient recovery means, or conversely too intensive training in comparison to the conditions.<\/p>\n

    Engaging in a new exercise before the body has received the building blocks and sleepy dust it needs to recover from the previous one, results in the fitness curve not bouncing all the way back to the preceding level. If this phenomenon is left to repeat itself, it\u2019s merely a matter of time before serious problems arise. This kind of overtraining can lead to an aptly named condition called overtraining<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Another pavement stone of good intentions one easily trips on when jogging down the proverbial road to hell is the aspiration of relieving stress through exercise. If a person is moderately stressed out by a sudden work assignment or a problem in a relationship, it\u2019s true that going for a jog can work wonders by providing a change of scenery, meaningful pastime and a way to blow off steam.<\/p>\n

    Even though its lowering effect on stress hormone levels is even based on scientific grounds, physical strain on top of an already existing stress burden can sometimes be more like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. If a person is already beat, trying to fix things up with more strain can tip Humpty Dumpty to the wrong side of the fence i.e., result in burnout.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Training over with overtraining?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Overtraining and burnout are very much intertwined and are in some contexts even considered to be synonyms. It\u2019s no wonder since they both affect the exact same system – the one and only central nervous system. The essential way the two interlock is that they can both help each other tip the scales to a state where the body is left unable to recover from the stress it has been subjected to. This is due to our stress system being somewhat incapable of separating different sources of stress.<\/p>\n

    \"Athlete<\/p>\n

    Even if our stress system is blind to the sources, we ourselves aren\u2019t. These two conditions can be roughly divided based on their alleged sources, burnout referring more to a mental or emotional fatigue and, as the term implies, overtraining to the result of excessive exercise. This way it\u2019s also possible to list burnout as a symptom of overtraining and vice versa. Naturally both conditions have a widely similar description of symptoms, including for example:<\/p>\n