Sleep

This episode deals with something we all do every day, sleep!

Sleep is now seen as an active, restorative experience intended to optimize our functioning while awake, rather than a passive process. Sleep is closely tied with mood and pain, and plays an
important role in cognition, emotional regulation, injury, function, and chronic disease.

Sleep difficulties are incredibly prevalent and fatigue frequently accumulates over time –
the concept of sleep debt. Though generally 8 hours per night are recommended, we
often underestimate how much sleep we need and how much we are actually getting.

Sleep quality is as critical as quantity, and like the development of any good habit, it
starts with building a healthy and patterned night time sleep routine. We discuss ways to
recognize sleep debt, means and by how much to repay it, as well as the effects of not
doing so.

Sleep is crucial to overall performance, which hinges on four important domains:
cognitive, physical, emotional, and social. Sleep deprivation also has different impacts
on performance, be it by altering our cognitive abilities, limiting endurance, reaction
time, and accuracy, or by changing the body’s ability to metabolize fuel for activity.

Throughout the episode, we also debunk some common sleep myths – are sleep
journals useful; are naps helpful, or harmful; should melatonin be prescribed; is that
midnight snack keeping us awake or putting us to bed? Listen to learn how to optimize
nightly sleep to improve performance and quality of life.

Guest: Dr. Brandon Marcello – https://www.brandonmarcellophd.com

Additional Resources:

Sleep and athletic performance

Effects of training and competition on sleep of elite athletes: a systematic review and
meta-analysis

Sleep in elite athletes and nutritional interventions to enhance sleep

Physiology, sleep stages