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The Importance of Sleep for Your Best Performance

By Gaelle Abecassis | Apr 2, 2024

Want to know a legal fitness hack that few people take advantage of? Sleep. That’s right, some good old-fashioned slumber. In fact, Matthew Walker, a neuroscience professor who specializes in sleep research, says, “Sleep may be the greatest legal performance-enhancing drug that too few athletes are abusing enough in this modern day and age.” As such, sleep is as important a component of your endurance sport’s training plan as the workouts themselves.

When you get enough sleep, your body has time to devote energy to repairing damaged and inflamed muscles and tissues from that day’s workout. Sleep is also when your immune system recharges. Or, if you’re dealing with an illness, sleep allows your body to go to work fighting off that cold or flu. And when you sleep, your brain has a chance to clean out any metabolic waste, leaving you in a better cognitive state by morning. And if that wasn’t enough, a good night’s sleep also boosts your metabolism, which makes it easier to eat better the following day.

With all these free and readily available benefits, why is sleep so hard to come by in our modern world? Truth is, we sabotage our best intentions when it comes to shutting ourselves down. We work late. We go out with friends for a night on the town. We catch the last flight home. We even work against our best interests when it comes to recovery. For instance, lying on the couch or in bed, binge-watching a show deep into the night, doesn’t count as sleep recovery. The body needs REM sleep for all the health goodness to happen. This is the deep, dreamless state that lasts for a few uninterrupted hours. You won’t get there while streaming Netflix in bed.

The importance of sleep can’t be overstated. Without it, you cannot perform your best. Dr. Walker points out that a lack of sleep can reduce your peak performance by up to 30%. Workouts that were possible after a solid night of shuteye will be almost impossible without it (And even if you have the physical reserves to pull them off, they will definitely feel impossible.).

Endurance Training with Sleep

Think of sleep as the first part of your next workout and schedule it into your endurance training. If you know you’ll be up late one night in the coming week, plan an easy workout day to follow. Humango’s coaching app makes it easy to plan for these sleep hiccups. Just inform Hugo, Humango’s digital coach, and Hugo will switch workouts around in the app, and it'll keep your fitness progression on track by adjusting your successive workouts to compensate for the change. 

Conversely, if you have interval training lined up for the next day, follow our tips below to get the sleep you need the night before to crush those efforts and set yourself up for a deep slumber the night after to speed your recovery.

6 Tips to a Good Night’s Sleep

1. Go to bed at the same time each night, early enough to give yourself 7-9 hours of sleep. If you feel tired from the day, go to sleep early. If not, stay up an extra 30 minutes if you want. Half an hour either way won’t ruin your sleep cycle.
2. Get up at the same time each morning. Doing so sets your circadian rhythm for the day. You'll feel primed to jump into your day when it becomes routine.
3. Remove any light sources from your bedroom. Close the curtains and shades, unplug the nightlight, turn your clock away from your face, and turn your phone face down.
4. Complete your workout 4-5 hours before bedtime. You want to give your body enough time to reduce muscle inflammation and calm down. If you don’t, it could keep you awake, even when you're exhausted. (Marathoners trying to sleep after a race will know what we mean.)
5. Say no to caffeine after lunch. Skip alcohol altogether if you can. Or, limit yourself to one alcoholic drink with dinner.
6. Speaking of dinner, eat it at least three hours before you turn in for bed. You want to give your stomach time to digest the meal before lying down.

In short, when building out your training schedule with Humango or any endurance coach, schedule your workouts around your sleep patterns. If you need to work nights a few days a week, your training plan should reflect the need for adequate rest to accommodate this reality. Instead of scheduling intervals or long, steady-state sessions, you should do recovery workouts or technique-focused training on those days.

However you make sleep a priority, just do it. Nothing beats a good night of sleep in the hierarchy of health and fitness benefits.