Many people paddle for social and leisure purposes, but if you’re paddling frequently to improve your fitness or training for an event you might find it interesting to hear how resting more can improve your paddling. The three core pillars of sports performance are training, nutrition and recovery. In recent years, getting good quality sleep has been recognised as a key tool to improve athletic performance. We know that sleep is an important part of resting and recovering from your training, but why exactly does sleep help, what happens if you aren’t sleeping enough and what can you do to maximise the quality of your sleep?

What happens when we sleep?

When we sleep, our brains cycle through a few different stages. These sleep stages are split into two groups – REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement). REM sleep is characterised by darting eye movements, hence the term rapid eye movement, and it is responsible mainly for the cognitive benefits of sleep such as retaining a good memory, reducing brain fog and improving your concentration. REM sleep has been nicknamed dream sleep because it tends to be the time that we experience dreams. On the other hand, NREM sleep is responsible for the physical benefits of sleep like physical growth and development, the maintenance of hormone cycles and cardiovascular health. Whilst REM sleep is a stage on its own, NREM is made up of three stages and our brains cycle through all the sleep stages several times each night. Each sleep cycle lasts approximately 90 minutes and at the start of the night, we spend a higher proportion of each sleep cycle in the NREM stages (light and deep sleep), and towards the end of the night we have less NREM sleep, and it gets replaced with a higher proportion of REM sleep. If you wake up before your body’s natural wake time (for example, when using an alarm), then you are not getting the full amount of time in each stage that your body needs and expects – particularly REM sleep which is usually concentrated on towards the end of a typical night.

What happens if you don’t sleep enough?

For all of us, not sleeping enough can affect our health. Our immune system begins to weaken, hormone maintenance is harder, mood imbalances can occur, and physical fatigue lasts longer. If you are somebody who does a lot of sport, all of those usual negative effects will be magnified because of the additional stress of training on the body, but it will also be much harder and take longer to recover from training sessions. Motivation to train will begin to dwindle, it will be harder to perform whilst training and racing and you won’t get the full physical muscular and cardiovascular benefits from your sessions.

This isn’t so much of a problem if it’s just the odd night that you can’t sleep or you need to set an early alarm because your body compensates by prioritising the sleep stages that you may have missed or not spent enough time in over the next few days. You might feel a bit tired and groggy but you’re unlikely to have any lasting effects. Everybody has a bad night’s sleep from time to time, but if you’re chronically sleep deprived or you rely on an alarm to wake you every single day then it’s likely that you are missing out on the full benefit of your sleep and therefore your training. If that is something that is important to you, then sometimes skipping your morning session for an extra couple of hours of well-needed sleep will give you more physical benefit than forcing yourself out of bed after hearing another 5.30am alarm.

How does sleep benefit sport?

The most obvious thing to note is that the physical benefits of NREM sleep help our muscles to recover after exercising or training. But there are many other more detailed ways that sleep can improve our paddling from improved fat loss, muscle growth, a more positive mood and higher self-esteem, to better technical skills, balance and form whilst moving through the water which reduces your injury risk.

Muscle growth – muscle mass is important for paddle power. The stronger and more powerful you are, the more pressure you can put into your stroke to move through the water fast and efficiently. Testosterone is largely responsible for muscle growth and although it’s seen as the male sex hormone, it is produced by both men and women. The vast majority of testosterone production happens during REM sleep; the longer you sleep the higher your testosterone levels will rise, and the longer you are awake the lower they will fall. Sleep deprivation or disturbance is linked with reduced testosterone levels, and this directly impacts the amount of muscle tissue you can grow and maintain. Research highlights the importance of sleep, one study showed that testosterone levels in young, healthy adults fell by 10-15% after just one week where sleep was restricted to five hours per night. For context, the normal rate of decline is about 1-2% per year. If you struggle to sleep for enough hours each night, the amount of muscle you can grow and maintain will be reduced, no matter how much training you put in.

Technical skills – paddling isn’t just about cardiovascular fitness and muscle tone. It has a huge technical aspect requiring balance and coordination as a minimum just to get on a board and paddle, but more advanced movements like turning, surfing and white water require huge amounts of motor skills. To develop these motor skills, we need to put hours of practice in. They aren’t generally something that can be learned quickly. Getting enough REM sleep will maximise your cognitive development and memory. Meaning that the step-back turn you have been practicing will be much more controlled next time if you’ve had a good night’s sleep after training. Not only is sleep imperative to maintain your energy levels and for your muscles to repair, but also to memorise the movements required for the skills you are learning. This is also important for injury prevention because the correct paddle stroke technique will be learned and memorised for next time.

Endurance – cardiovascular fitness and endurance improves in both the long-term and the short-term with sufficient, good quality sleep. In the short-term, studies show that endurance athletes such as runners and cyclists are significantly faster in time trials after 3 nights of undisturbed sleep compared to after 3 nights of sleep restricted to around 5 hours. This is mainly because they their perceived exertion was lower when they were well-rested, so they were able to work harder more comfortably. Next time you have a race coming up, you might struggle to sleep well the night before if you’re feeling a bit nervous, you’ve been travelling, or you have an early start, but try to prioritise getting good sleep in the nights leading up to the big event and it might feel easier than ever.

Energy levels – both short-term and long-term sleep deprivation can cause changes in your energy levels and how your body metabolises the food you eat. Insulin resistance increases and insulin sensitivity reduces after having a night of poor sleep, particularly if you’ve not had enough NREM sleep. This means it becomes harder to regulate your blood sugar levels and you may feel your energy levels soar and crash after a meal or snack. Sleep deprivation also increases your levels of the hormone ghrelin, which is responsible for the feeling of hunger, and causes the decrease of your levels of the hormone leptin which makes you feel full. After a poor night’s sleep, not only will you experience energy highs and lows, you will also feel more hungry than usual and it will take more to feel full. There are only two ways of getting energy – eating or sleeping; if you haven’t slept properly then you will likely feel the need to eat more. This doesn’t bode well for your paddling because you will probably have less motivation and feel more lethargic before your session gets started, you’ll find it harder to tap into your energy stores during your session and so you might bonk or run out of energy sooner, and you’ll feel more worn out than usual by the end of your session. If this was to become chronic sleep deprivation, you may find it difficult to regulate your energy stores and therefore prioritise your paddle training.

Why might sleep quality be reduced after paddling?

If you are exercising or paddling with high intensity or high volume, you probably have elevated levels of cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone that is responsible for the fight-or-flight response in difficult situations. Cortisol levels elevate when we exercise because it has stressful effects on the body, particularly if the session has been intense. It can help to perform the hard sessions in the mornings so that you have all day to recover before going to bed in the evening, and it’s important to balance out your hard sessions with easier ones too. Incorporating some training sessions of a steady pace with a low heart rate can give you cardiovascular endurance benefits without elevating your cortisol levels so much. These less intense sessions build your aerobic capacity, improve your sleep quality and teach your body that training isn’t stressful.

Sleep quality is affected by travel. If you are travelling for competitions or events then it’s important to be mindful that travelling itself is a stress on the body, and additional training without adequate sleep and recovery can impair your performance rather than improve it. These effects are magnified if you are travelling across several time zones or at early or late hours of the day and night.

Caffeine plays a significant role in many athletes’ lives, as well as a lot of the general population. Caffeine is a stimulant typically found in coffee, tea, chocolate and energy drinks but can also be found in some energy gels, pre-workout nutrition and many other sports foods and drinks. Caffeine has many benefits and is used heavily in many sports because its effects have been proven to lead to higher performance under a lower perceived exertion. The main concerns with caffeine are around timing and ethical use. If it is consumed too late in the day, it will inhibit your ability to fall asleep and/or get a good quality sleep. Even if you are somebody who can fall asleep easily after an evening coffee, your brain will not experience the different stages of sleep in the same depth and order as you would usually need. The other concern with overuse of caffeine is that it is often used to mask genuine fatigue and overtraining; if you aren’t feeling up to your training session then usually going home and getting some rest will improve your athletic ability more than having a strong cup of coffee and forcing your body into another intense session. You can’t reap the benefits from training if you aren’t allowing your body the rest it needs to adapt.

What can you do to improve your sleep?

If you like caffeinated foods and drinks and the benefits they give you, be mindful of how much caffeine you are actually consuming. Many sports drinks, particularly pre-workout drinks, are unregulated and can sometimes contain the same amount of caffeine as up to 10 cups of coffee in one go. A cup of coffee generally contains between 100-200mg caffeine, depending on the size. Caffeine has a half-life of approximately 5 hours which means that it builds up if you are consuming several drinks throughout the day, and if you have a strong cup of coffee at 3pm, it’s not really too different from having half a cup of coffee at 8pm when you should be beginning to wind down.

Alcohol is similar. Lots of people assume alcohol helps you to fall asleep because it is a relaxant. This is far from the truth and unfortunately, although you very quickly drift off into unconsciousness your sleep staging will not be anywhere near normal. If you want to maximise the benefits of sleep for paddling performance, drinking less alcohol or consuming it earlier in the evening rather than late can help reduce its effects on your sleep quality; particularly after days that you have been training.

Melatonin is a hormone that makes us feel sleepy and helps us to fall asleep quickly. It is produced naturally by the body when it starts to get dark, it peaks in the early hours and then reduces completely when we are exposed to daylight again in the morning. It can sometimes be supplemented to induce sleepiness and is commonly used to help jet lag and insomnia, although it’s rarely necessary. Ensuring that you are winding down with dim lighting in the evening for a few hours before you go to bed and keeping your bedroom dark will help your melatonin production and enable you to maintain good quality sleep.

Napping is generally not advised because it can disrupt your sleep-wake cycle and contribute to insomnia. However, if you have no history of sleep disorders and have not had enough sleep, napping can help to boost your energy levels and mood. In the first sleep cycle, we have a higher proportion of NREM sleep so napping in the day can actually help your physical training in theory, as long as it does not disrupt your sleep routine at night. If you start to feel it’s harder to fall asleep at night after napping then you should stop and not let regular naps become a habit.

Tryptophan is an amino acid which improves sleep quality. It is not produced naturally by the body, meaning that we must consume foods rich in tryptophan or we risk becoming deficient. It increases melatonin production and therefore speeds up sleep onset and improves sleep quality. Most people get more than enough tryptophan and so the risk of deficiency is low. But, if you struggle with falling and staying asleep then it can be beneficial to eat or drink something high in tryptophan about an hour or two before bed. Some examples include whole milk, oatmeal, tuna, or some nuts and seeds.

Finally, simply maintaining good sleep hygiene is one of the healthiest things you can do. Ensure your bedroom is dark and cool at night, you have comfortable and breathable bedding, and you maintain a regular sleep schedule with a wake time that is consistent from day to day. Having a good sleep routine is one of the best things you can do to maintain your health, but particularly if you are paddling or exercising a lot and trying to get the most out of your training.

If you would like to work more closely with me to improve your sleep, whether as an athlete or to help you recover from insomnia or another sleep disorder, please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can find me on Instagram @starssleepclinic or email me at holly@stars-sleepclinic.co.uk