Work, training, kids, cook, and grocery shop. Whether you are an ‘everyday athlete’ with children and a career, or a top athlete, you may be walking around with the belief that you need to do as much as possible to achieve your goals. Exercising is obviously really important. However, in our society, there is an inappropriate belief: namely that the most successful people sleep a maximum of 4 hours a night – or just sleep very, very little. Can this be true?
The myth with the 4-hour sleep possibly comes from Anders Ericsson’s famous study of violinists, which Malcolm Gladwell made known with his 10,000-hour rule. The rule you may have heard of says the following: “The sooner you reach 10,000 hours of training, the greater the chance of becoming part of the elite within an area.” Anders Ericsson’s study showed that the best violinists practiced more than the others. However, it is less well known that the study showed that the second most important factor for performance was sleep – and that the best violinists slept an average of 8.6 hours every 24 hours. Almost 9 hours of sleep every night.
The most athletic animals on the planet, the felines, typically sleep 16 hours a day. It is not only in the animal kingdom that the importance of a good night’s sleep is gaining ground. Science shows clear connections between sleep and our physical and mental performance.
Among other things, Arianna Huffington, the woman behind the Huffington Post, has just published the book Thrive. In the book, she describes how she herself has used sleep as a performance-optimizing factor.
Top athletes & big sports clubs have specially equipped a sleeping center at the training facility. This allows players to sleep as much and as best as possible. Some athletes is rumoured to sleep at least 10 hours a day. Protect your sleep and optimize the quality of your sleep to improve your performance in all aspects of life.