Athletes in all sports understand the impact that sleep can have on their lifestyle and their performance on and off the field. There are a number of opportunities to further improve this, but the best place to start is, quite simply, the mattress. Here, we’re taking a closer look at the impact of sleep and performance on athletes and how to find the best mattress for athletes.
Why Is Sleep Important For Athlete Performance?
Sleep is essential for overall wellbeing and can also help with muscle recovery and function. Good sleep after physical exercise and regular sleeping patterns can help to prevent illness as the cytokines that are produced while we sleep can help with fighting infections.
Sleep can also help your heart to rest, allowing you to better recover after physical exertion and further helping your cardiovascular system to repair. Your cells and tissues start to restore themselves and overall, your body gets an opportunity to rest.
It isn’t just physical health that sleep can help however – it can also improve an athlete’s mental wellbeing. Sleep overall can help an athlete to improve their memory consolidation, and this can help to improve overall performance. Further to this, cognitive processing is positively impacted when an athlete is well rested, and this can have a significant impact particularly on those whose sport specialism requires quick decision making. As with all people, sleep can have a significant impact on mood. Studies have shown that sleep can have a real impact on performance – for example a study from Stanford showed that a focus group of men’s basketball players extended their sleep to 10 hours a night saw improvements in players speed to sprinting and shooting improved by 9%.
What Does An Athlete Need From A Mattress?
In order to be well-rested and to get a good level of sleep, a good mattress is required in order to minimise sleep disruption and improve muscle repair. There are a number of areas that athletes need to consider when it comes to their mattress:
- Mattress Firmness – this will depend on the type of sport that the athlete is undertaking as it will depend on if you need more or less pushback from the mattress to support their frame.
- Temperature Regulation – temperature regulation technology in mattress has improved substantially as time has gone on as being too hot or being too cold will lead to a disruptive sleep. Ensuring the mattress has good temperature regulation can athletes to maintain a good temperature throughout the night.
How To Find The Best Mattress?
With so many mattress options available on the market, it is important to do your research taking into account the mattress firmness and temperature regulation, but also other aspects like materials and price. With a variety of hybrid mattresses also available, conducting close comparison across the market is the best option.
You will also need to identify which ‘type’ of mattress might be needed – for example foam, innerspring, hybrid, latex or airbed. With each having more dynamic performance and accessibility with the growth of the mattress industry, you can test each and every one depending on your requirements for premium athletic performance.
