You hear it often – sleep is essential to your recovery from training and ultimately your running performance (not to mention your overall health).

That said, how many of us really make getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night a true priority?

And for those of us that do, how often are we actually successful when you factor in kids, work, needing to get up early to train, not being able to fall asleep, etc.?

As someone who has made sleep a priority this year, I fully appreciate all the difficulties that come with getting a solid 8 hours of sleep every night.

So, in this article we’re going to…

• Look at data on how much sleep actually impacts your recovery and performance (both positively and negatively)
• Examine some researched-backed ways you can improve the quality of sleep you are able to get.

After reading this article, you’ll have a more comprehensive understanding of the exact reasons sleep is so critical and some concrete ways you can improve yours.

Why Exactly Does Sleep Matter so Much for Runners?

I’ll repeat my first sentence from this article – you hear all the time how important sleep is to your recovery, performance and overall health.

But, what does that actually mean?

I know for me, general statements like that don’t translate well to my brain. I need to understand the exact issues it causes and the science behind what’s going on.

It’s like when you hear that running slow helps you race faster. Everyone says it, but until you understand the science behind it, it’s a hard philosophy to adhere to.

So, let’s look at some of the research on exactly how a lack of sleep impairs your recovery and performance and how much adequate sleep can help you.

Improved Recovery through Increased Blood Flow

The first thing to remember about recovery is that in order to repair the muscle damage caused by training, you need to give your muscles the nutrients they need to rebuild. The body does this through the blood.

Therefore, the more blood you can circulate through to your damaged muscles, the more nutrients you can deliver and the faster you’ll recover.

Studies have shown that as you fall into the deeper stages of sleep, your muscles will see an increase in blood flow compared to REM sleep or when you’re awake.

This is another reason we want to track the time you spend sleeping in different “stages” since you may be getting enough total sleep, but not enough deep sleep to improve the recovery processes.

Increased Hormone Production

Another critical function that occurs during deep sleep is the pituitary gland releasing growth hormones into the body.

Growth hormones are one of the most efficient and effective ways that our bodies muscle repair and growth.

When you don’t get sufficient deep sleep, the secretion of this growth hormone declines, and it can become harder for your body to recover from injuries.

Conversely, insufficient sleep could result in higher levels of catabolic hormones responsible for energy production.

If you have ever been completely exhausted but couldn’t fall asleep, or if you did sleep yet woke up not feeling completely rested, it could be the result of elevated sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity and higher levels of the hormone cortisol.

The SNS releases cortisol, which helps convert free fatty acids into energy for exercise. However, when glycogen is in low supply, cortisol can also convert amino acids into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which inhibits muscle growth.

Reduced Inflammation

The hormone prolactin, which helps regulate inflammation, is also released while sleeping.

If you don’t get enough sleep, you’re more likely to experience inflammation in the body, which can make recovery more difficult while also putting you at risk of further injury.

Direct Performance Benefits

While most discussion about sleep focuses on recovery, there have been some more recent studies on how much improved sleep can improve performance and the physiological effects a lack of sleep can have on your performance.

Take for example this 2016 study that demonstrated athletes who underwent 6 nights of sleep extension improved time to exhaustion and a lower rating of perceived exertion during exercise.

Likewise, this 2009 study confirmed the opposite; sleep deprivation lead to a reduction in time to exhaustion and, for runners, resulted in needing more oxygen at rest and when training.

Tips and Strategies for Better Sleep

Now that we have some concrete data to help us better comprehend the positive impact sleep can have on our performance and recovery, let’s look at some easy-to-implement strategies that can help you improve your sleep quality.

I’ve tried quite a few tips and tricks for getting better sleep and these are the four that helped me the most…

Setup tracking

The first thing I recommend to anyone, even if you don’t have trouble sleeping, is to start tracking your sleep.

If there’s one thing we know about improving sleep, it’s that the same tactics, tricks, and supplements aren’t going to work for everyone.

Tracking is therefore critical to understand what is working and what isn’t working for you.

You’ll want to track (1) total time spent sleeping; (2) time spent in different phases of the sleep cycle; and (3) the number if times you wake up each night.

Each of these is important to understanding what issues you’re having with sleep and thus the best measures you can take to improve them. Plus, you have an easy way to tell what’s working for you and what’s not.

Luckily, there are devices on the market today that make tracking sleep easy. My favorite is Whoop because it’s super accurate and comfortable, plus it tracks a ton of other training and recovery related data.

Again, I highly recommend you don’t skip this step and even start tracking your sleep if you don’t have issues, even for just a little while, so you can have a data point should you encounter sleep issues down the road.

Keep Your Bedroom Cold

Your body’s ability to regulate your body temperature plays a critical role during sleep.

This is because your sympathetic nervous system is less excited and calmer in cooler conditions, especially during sleep. Thus, your body needs to drop in temperature by 1-3 degrees to fall and stay asleep effectively.

This leads to deeper sleep.

Moreover, body temperature increases are one of the main reasons you may wake up at night. Thus, keep your room cool and use blankets as needed.

I mentioned testing before and for me, sleeping in a cool room is the number one factor that moves the needle the most when it comes to my deep sleep and number of times waking per night.

Limit Light Exposure (Especially Devices)

You’ve likely heard this advice before, but how often do you consciously put it into practice?

This is one of those “easy and cheap” things you can do to dramatically improve sleep quality if you put your mind to it.

From a scientific perspective, light of any kind suppresses natural melatonin production, which is one of the main hormones our brain uses to signal to our body that it’s time to sleep.

Moreover, blue light (the lights emitted from our cell phones and other devices) has been shown to trick our brain into thinking it is still daytime, disrupting circadian rhythms and leaving us feeling alert instead of tired.

Be conscious for a few days or a week or two of how much time you spend in front of your devices before bed and track how much your sleep improves. I am willing to bet you’ll see a huge improvement in sleep markers with just this change.

Develop a Routine

Speaking of circadian rhythms, one of the most effective methods to being able to get consistent sleep is “training” your circadian rhythms so you’re ready to go to sleep when it’s your scheduled bedtime.

Obviously, sticking to a nighttime routine is easier said than done and there are often factors outside your control. However, in my experience, one of the biggest reasons for not getting sufficient total time of sleep stems from too much time just doing nothing at night or “unwinding”.

Trust me, as someone with 4 children, I understand how tempting it is to be able to final relax once the kids go to bed. However, that extra hour or 90 minutes you spend watching television at night adds up throughout the week and overtime.

Changing this habit isn’t always the easiest thing to do. What helped me was making a conscious decision to turn my nighttime “unwind” routine into a sleep prep routine.

Just like I do with my kids, I have a 15-minute routine before bed that helps me get in the frame of mind that it’s bedtime. I take my supplements (more on that below), get the bed ready and turn off the phone.

It sounds ridiculous, but it’s a great way to remind myself each night to focus on getting to sleep and not waiting time.