Sleep for victor y

Compression socks, ice baths and massage are all very well, but sleep is the best recovery tool you’ve got. Here’s how to get your sleep strategy right

‘A review we completed examined all the available napping literature in athletes and found the optimal duration was 20 to 90 minutes between 1pm and 4pm’

‘ For me to control my hallucinations I don’t look around because, if I do, everything will turn into something, right? So, I’ll just see the hallucinations on the ground and they’re normally stable. That’s how I control them.’

Those are the words of 52-year-old

Leah Goldstein, who in June became the first woman to win the Race Across America, cycling 4,800km in just over 11 days. The Canadian’s victory came off the back of riding for 40 hours straight with no sleep, followed by three hours every day before cutting to just 90 minutes. Goldstein is an extreme example of insufficient sleep leading to toxic delirium, but lack of shut-eye is a 21st century epidemic and, seen through a cycling lens, will put the brakes on improved performance.

‘Not enough sleep, especially over a period of time, results in decreased speed and power output,’ says Shona Halson, one of the world’s leading sleep experts, who used to work with Team Bikeexchange. ‘It also leads to reduced reaction times, lowers your immune system and is detrimental to cognitive ability, which is important when it comes to factors like pacing.’

Sleep to grow

Ineos Grenadiers’ Luke Rowe once said that the winner of the Tour is the one who sleeps best. He’s not wrong, and the reason comes down primarily to hormones, including human growth hormone (HGH). Paradoxically, this hormone is released in quantity from the brain’s pituitary gland when you’re either exercising hard or sleeping. It repairs and rebuilds muscles by stimulating the liver and other tissues to forge a protein called insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1). Lack of sleep equals lack of HGH production, equals restricted muscle growth. (Sadly, it’s the same with alcohol; studies show a 25% drop in HGH secretion after a night on the ale.)

‘Sleep can also affect your eating habits,’ Halson adds. Again it’s down to hormones, specifically the ones that control eating behaviour. Rising levels of a hormone called ghrelin signal that it’s time to start eating, while increased levels of leptin tell you that you’re full. A German study showed that just one night’s broken sleep significantly raises ghrelin levels while decreasing leptin, explaining why you crave a pipe of Pringles when you’re tired.

How much sleep do you need?

A paper entitled ‘Sleep and the Athlete’ in the British Journal Of Sports Medicine (BJSM) found that an individualised approach is best but, as a blanket prescription, researchers highlighted a recent study showing ‘better endurance performance after three consecutive nights of around 8 hours and 20 minutes sleep each night compared to their normal 6 hours and 50 minutes sleep each night’.

That’s the ideal, although it’s tricky to measure. A smartwatch or sleep tracker will help, but the BJSM researchers highlighted how commercially available devices tend to overestimate sleep duration relative to the gold-standard polysomnography, which includes assessment of eye movement, brain and muscle activity, oxygen saturation, body movement and breathing rate. Still, it’s a start. As is a mid-afternoon nap.

‘This is really important if you’re sleepdeprived,’ says Halson. ‘A review we completed examined all the available napping literature in athletes and found the optimal nap duration was 20 to 90 minutes between 1pm and 4pm.’

With many of us still working at home, this is more realistic than you might think (if your kids let you, of course). ‘But don’t nap too much or too late in the day because that will impair the quality of your night-time sleep,’ warns Halson.

Myriad further factors also influence the quality and quantity of your sleep, including nutrition, room temperature and even when you ride. Just remember that sleep isn’t a luxury – it’s essential for improved cycling performance and, arguably more importantly, improved mood.