Feature

Mon 30 Mar, 12:00 pm UTC

Health: Bedroom performance

By Nick Morgan

Poor sleep doesn’t just make you tired, it also means slow recovery, declining performance and a susceptibility to injury and illness. Here’s how to improve things in the bedroom.

Things to do

1. Eat to sleep: It’s not a good idea to eat a big meal within four hours of bedtime, but some foods are known to have sleep-inducing effects. Many contain the natural sleep-inducing chemical tryptophan, which is found in turkey, red meat, tuna, shellfish, bananas, spinach, nuts, seeds and Marmite. Dairy products are also a good source.

2. Sleep more: Research at California’s Stanford University has shown that extending sleep times to 10 hours a day over seven weeks leads to faster race times and quicker reactions.

3. Be regular: The body loves routine. Training, eating dinner and going to bed at around the same time each day will help set your body clock so your body and mind automatically shut down at the same time each night by habit.

4. Take a bath: Although a hot bath about an hour and a half before bedtime will raise your body temperature – and heart rate with it – the sudden drop in body temperature when you get out has been proven to trigger sleepiness.  

5. Turn the light off: Light in the bedroom can mess with your pineal gland’s production of the healing sleep hormones melatonin and serotonin. This goes for the bathroom too if you need to get up in the night. Low level night lights are the answer to avoid a stubbed toe or ‘spillages’.

6. Decaff your cuppa: Tea contains caffeine but it also contains theophylline, which helps dilate veins and blood vessels, improving circulation and helping your body cool down – which can start off your sleep reflex. You can decaffeinate your tea by simply pouring the tea twice, throwing away the first ‘rinse’ – and most of the caffeine with it – after about 30 seconds, and then drinking the second infusion. Tea also contains theobromine, which stimulates renal circulation and makes you need a wee – something you want to get out of the way before you head for bed!

7. Sniff and snore: Pack your pillow with lavender, orange blossom or Scot’s pine. The smell of hops is also said to work, but don’t rely on a partner’s beery snoring.

8. Heat up and down: Wear socks to avoid cold feet, but turn the heating down in the bedroom. Ideal sleeping temperature is 17-21 degrees C.

9. Ride to rest: Research at Stanford University showed that subjects were able to sleep about 45 minutes longer each night and fall asleep 15 minutes earlier after they had followed a moderate intensity exercise programme for 16 weeks. But don’t exercise too late in the day or you could upset your body’s circadian rhythms. Most research suggests you need a five-hour gap between exercise and bedtime. Athletes’ average power outputs peak at 6pm, so still time to get to sleep by 11pm.

10. Bigger is better: A standard double bed (4ft 6in) gives each partner 2ft 3in of space to sleep in – not much wider than a baby’s cot. If a bad back is ruining your sleep don’t listen to futon evangelists; get a softer, not harder mattress. Research carried out by the Kovacs Foundation in Spain showed back pain sufferers were twice as likely to report improvements in lower back pain when they trialled medium-firm rather than firm mattresses.

Things to avoid

1. Don't eat enemies to sleep: Sugar, caffeine and alcohol.

  • Caffeine raises heart rate and blood pressure. It also suppresses production of melatonin which helps us relax and prepare for sleep, for up to 10 hours, at the same time boosting adrenaline.
  • Sugar in your blood stream plays havoc with the production of adrenal hormones, keeping you awake as your body busies itself processing your pre-bedtime snack, and you’ll wake up when your blood sugar drops too low.
  • Alcohol is a well known relaxant and switches off adrenaline production, but it disturbs the different stages of sleep and causes poor quality rest and dehydration.

 2. Don't overtrain: A disrupted sleep pattern is a sure sign you’re training too hard and upsetting the body’s rhythm. Back off and see if your sleeping recovers.

 3. Don't clock watch: Remove the clock; waking in the night is bad enough without being able to work out how few hours there are left before you have to get up. Loud alarms are a rude awakening too; many swear by ‘rising sun’ alarm clocks that slowly light up the room and wake you au naturel. 

User Comments

There are 13 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 13 of 13 comments

  • It's all fairly obvious stuff; Sedentary people need less sleep. Older people need less sleep. Teenagers and young adults need more sleep, as do very active people.

    We notice on holiday that we don't sleep well in small beds. We have a super king size at home so even a normal king size feels small - and you usually only get a double bed in hotels which means you can't move without waking the other person; a pain when it's a fairly intense cycing holiday and you really need your sleep! If possible we opt for a twin room and push the beds together - you get more bed space that way, and the whole holiday experience is better with decent quality sleep.

    I go to bed bwteen 9 and 10 pm most nights and get up around 6am, but once or twice a week I go to track sessions at 8-10pm which really buggers everything up. By the time I get home after the track session, have showered and eaten my tea, I'll get to bed between 11 and 12, but that makes getting up around 6 next day and cycling to work pretty hard. It doesn't help that I find it hard to get to sleep straight away after racing or after a sprint/derny session and then even when I do get to sleep, I wake frequently in the night. It's quite annoying, but 8-10pm is just when the track sessions are, so I can't do much about it. Other than that I am (at the moment, with no kids) at liberty to go to bed whenever I like and I make the most of it! I like to have nap on Saturday afternoons but I know most people don't have this luxury!

  • I'm still interested to see "Don't eat within 4 hours of bed time" advice. Any idea why this is there?

    If this is related to the "Don't eat at night to loose wight" advice, then from what I have read, there is no scientific evidence to support this at all. The same way there is no scientific evidence to support the "drink two liters of water a day". Drink what you need, and eat what you body requires for you to function at your best!

  • masterbation before bed also helps you sleep

  • And when you are old enough ednino...sex before sleep is good as well : )

  • 10 hours of sleep, yep now talk to people who live in the real world and have to get up and work 9 hours a day.

  • Captain obvious article :)

    Well, though we know most of the stuff out here....we rarely implement this routine which is more of a problem :|

  • Now if only my 20 month old daughter could read, she'd know that her waking me up at 6am with a screaming fit, to get her up so she can have breakfast and play, was affecting my perfomance on club runs.

  • "I'm still interested to see "Don't eat within 4 hours of bed time" advice. Any idea why this is there?"

    Eating a mighty feast late at night (as people tend to do when going out to eat) definitely keeps me awake and/or makes me wake frequently in the night - I'd assumed that's all it meant. Despite what they have said about red meat helping you sleep, the quantity I ate on Saturday eveningt; a half leg of lamb, along with the calamari starter and the tiramisu for desert, did me no favours that night! It was worth it though (and it was my birthday)! ;- )

  • "I'm still interested to see "Don't eat within 4 hours of bed time" advice. Any idea why this is there?"

    Problem I have is that if I eat early, I feel sleepy in the evenings and don't really do anything. Eating just before bed suits me better, I am able to be more active in the evenings and after I've eaten I usually feel sleepy pretty quickly. I've never been convinced that on the rare occasions when I don't sleep well, eating is the cause; it happens just as easily if I have eaten early. And then I am usually starving by the time I go to bed, which doesn't help either! Each to their own I guess. To me it seems natural to eat shortly before sleeping.

  • Incidentally, I've had the problem of not sleeping well after going out to eat too, but as I usually eat late anyway and it doesn't usually cause problems, I've always attributed it to the psychological stimulation of socialising and arriving home late. If I eat late at home I am very relaxed, and this doesn't happen.

  • Health/Bedroom Performance.

    This works for us,two old sods,built for comfort in old age,not speed to the undertakers.Shower & early evening meal.Relax for a hour watching TV to aid digestion.My other half retires to the Gymnasium attired in Basque etc and positioned infront of the high wardrobe in front of the landing platform(ankles kept apart with a piece of 4x2) ready for the evening edition of Late LIfe Rodgering.This completed I jump on my Little Italian Job & do an hour on the rollers.The fan is on full speed to simulate the real thing(wind in my face) and dry my fevered brow at the same time.All this calorie burning makes me sleep like a baby.Next morning surprisingly arrives,breakfast is a large bowl of Jumbo Porridge Oats.Off we go again into another exiting day in retirement.

  • I hope you execute all these manouvres whilst wearing the obligatory fluffy slippers (with cleats) and velvet smoking jacket?

  • Right, I'm off to make a turkey, beef, tuna, prawn, banana, spinach, peanut butter, sesameseed and Marmite sandwich and wash it down with a glass of milk.

    Shouldn't wake up till Tuesday...

  • 1

Post comment:

You need to login or register to post comments.

Related Articles

Also on BikeRadar