Lagoon | Sleep & Fitness News - April 25th, 2024

Hey packlings 👋

How has Alex Morgan’s sleep routine helped her stay atop the world of soccer? And how is  Team USA using sleep to combat mental health challenges? We’ve got all the details  in this week’s edition of the Sleep & Fitness News, so let’s get into it!

⚽️ Sleep & Nutrition: Alex Morgan’s Key To Staying Atop the Sport of Soccer

Alex Morgan had a remarkable last month - helping Team USA win the CONCACAF Gold Cup, as well as wins in the NWSL Challenge Cup and SheBelieves Cup.  This is what it looks like to still be on top of the soccer world, after more than 10 years. Morgan recently sat down with mindbodygreen to discuss how her recent sleep and nutrition routines have been a key to her success.  Morgan likes to track her sleep and has really prioritized locking in her sleep timing.  For her, the magic amount of sleep is between 8.5 and 9 hours each night. Having a good wind-down routine is important to her, and she opts for a book before bed rather than watching a show. When she’s traveling, she likes to light a candle on her nightstand to make me feel more at home and at ease. Finally she likes to keep it cool while she sleeps - saying 67 or 68 degrees is her sweet spot.  

🏅Olympic Officials Emphasize Sleep in New Mental Health Efforts 

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is keen to emphasize that it has “raised the bar” on mental health services in sports in response to Simone Biles, Caleb Dressel and other elite athletes highlighting the mental health challenges they’ve encountered during the Tokyo Olympics and beyond.  Jess Bartley, senior director of psychological services, recently shared that there were a number of initiatives that the USOPC would be rolling out, with an emphasis being placed on sleep hygiene. The idea of improving mental and physical performance through sleep is seen as a significant plan for them, with studies showing that increasing sleep duration is one of the most effective methods of improving physical and cognitive performance during competition. It’s great to see the most prominent sports governing body acknowledge that more sleep and better quality sleep is a key competitive advantage that our elite athletes can use to ensure they’re mentally on top of their games. 

💤 How Deep Sleep Became A Status Symbol

From TikTok videos promising you 34 percent more deep sleep each night through biohacking methods to viral “sleepy girl” mocktail recipes and people bragging about their sleep scores online, optimizing your sleep has become one of the hottest wellness trends of this past year. “Over the past ten years, we’ve been moving away from our cultural sort of tendency to undermine the importance of sleep,” says Wendy Troxel, senior behavioral and social scientist. As we rebuke that mentality of wearing sleeplessness as a badge of honor, the new-found obsession with “sleep performance” is becoming both an individual journey as well as a collective one.  While some may love the analytical approach to optimization, others can find it more helpful to take a no-pressure holistic approach to rest. There’s even a new movement in the sleep science world that emphasizes that sleep health is multifactorial, including subjective satisfaction and sleep patterns.  So depending on your cup of tea, you can trust your sleep tracking device, or just ask yourself “how restorative did my sleep feel last night?” 

🧘‍♀️ Yoga’s Surprisingly Strong Benefits for Older Women Struggling with Insomnia

A recent study conducted on women between the ages of 60 and 70 who  engaged in yoga therapy interventions found a significant decrease in both their insomnia severity scores, and also an additional positive effect - a decrease in systolic blood pressure. This particular study which was conducted over 12 weeks has a substantial regiment of six 60 minute sessions per week - saw substantial improvements for the participants.  Specifically, results have shown that yoga can help relax your body before bed, and reduce night waking as well. That’s because yoga helps you move from a sympathetic mode (fight, flight or freeze) to a parasympathetic state (reset and digest) which is needed for quality sleep. Additionally, the perception of the impact of yoga was quite significant, with a majority of participants reporting that they “strongly agree” the yoga class left them more relaxed and helped them destress.

That's all for this edition of sleep & fitness news.. Thanks so much for following along!  Remember to follow @lagoonsleep on Instagram for your daily dose of sleep & fitness news and entertainment.