03/29/2023
A fighter is a balanced athlete whose physical are matched by his or hers mental toughness. My fighter and I had a dope conversation about how a fighters energy level has an impacted on not just technical ability but mental capacity. He asked about how much his sleep he should get. He noticed it’s effect on his training and we went down a rabbit hole.
First sleep for any athlete is important due to its ability to help your recover from the grind of training. Ideally normal individuals would need 7-8 hours but function at 5.5-6 . Mean while athletes should get 8-13 hours of sleep. This allows for both physical repair during NREM sleep and mental function and data processing during REM.
The sleep cycle is broken up in to two cycles called REM and NREM. There are 4 stages of sleep. In the 1-2 stages NREM sleep are the short while in stages 3-4 they are the longer.
So if cycles last 70-120 minutes that means if your getting 6 hours of sleep or less you may only be getting through maybe 3-5 cycles. If your getting 4-6 hours your will not be getting enough NREM sleep to repair the body. that also means your lacking REM sleep your and not processing all the data you obtained during the day. This can lead to physical and mental fatigue.
So more sleep more recovery. More recovery better athletes. Better athletes create better chances to win.