Happy Weekend, High Performance Humans,
Have you ever tried tracking your sleep? I have, and while I learned a lot of really good lessons it also taught me that it isn't always positive.
As an early adopter of tech I got into Whoop in 2017, right at the beginning. They even consider me one of their 'founding members', whatever that means! I loved being able to see how much sleep I was really getting versus what I thought I was getting. The splits between deep sleep, REM and light sleep were really interesting. The daily tracking of HRV and readiness to train was also fun. They even gamified sleep so that you could have league tables with friends and see who gets the best sleep score each night. It certainly puts sleep to the front of your thoughts.
Now here's the downside. Whoop was always telling me I needed more sleep. Like my school teachers saying "can do better, Simon!", which they did all the time. Eventually, I started getting anxious about whether I'd get a good night's sleep and how my scores would look the next morning. After years of using it, and a month or two of feeling anxious toward the end, I decided to take a break from Whoop. And guess what? Almost instantly, I felt relaxed and had a better night's sleep. I don't wear the Whoop any more for my own sanity.
Notwithstanding my last paragraph, I would still highly recommend that you do try tracking your sleep if you haven't already. Because as I did, you will learn a lot that you can use to shape your sleep strategy and get better sleep.
What I have also learned from sleep experts is that while sleep trackers can be useful if you learn to tune into the messages from your body, you can also gain pretty good insight into how you are sleeping and recovering.
In this week's podcast I chatted with Sport Sleep Specialist Dr. Luke Gupta. He has over a decade of experience working within high performance sport, including premier league football teams, England rugby, The Lionesses, and Formula 1, to name a few. One of the key points that Luke confirmed was that if you wake up and are in a good mood with good concentration levels, the chances are that your sleep is fine. No sleep tracker needed for this!
In this conversation Luke and I also chat about:
- The 2 way relationship between sleep and performance
- Individual sleep needs are unique and should be determined through trial and error
- How to get better sleep when travelling
- Limitations of sleep tracking devices
- The 3 top fundamentals of good sleep
You can find this episode on all of the major podcasts hosts, including Apple iTunes and Spotify.
P.S. Loving these emails and podcasts? Feel free to buy me a coffee.
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I really appreciate you being a part of my tribe.
Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Simon Ward
Health, Wellness & Performance Coach
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