Level Up With Sleep - Easiest Way To Improve Performance

Summary

• Sleep is one of the easiest ways to help an athlete perform better.
• Kids ages 6-12 years need 9-12 hours of sleep. Kids 13-18 years need between 8-10 hours.
• When kids don’t get enough sleep, they’re more likely to perform poorly in sports. Plus, studies have shown that a consistent lack of sleep, less than 8 hours, can lead to drinking, smoking, suicidal thoughts, and feelings of hopelessness.
• Helping your athlete with quality sleep can help them perform better in their sport.
• Shut off all screens; TV, computer, tablets, and mobile phones. No screens 1 hour before bedtime will promote quality sleep.
• A cool, dark, and quiet room will help your athlete with quality sleep.
• Consistent bedtime routines and bedtime will allow your athlete to settle into sleep and awake easier.
• Consumption will affect your kids ability to fall and stay asleep. Be aware of what they are eating and drinking hours before bed.
• Consumption can also include the music they are listening to. As well as the what they are watching on TV or scrolling through on their mobile phones.

Full Transcript

Hey, what's happening? Today we are talking about sleep. Why? Because it's one of the easiest and simplest ways to help your athlete perform better. If they can sleep better, they can perform better. It's not only going to help them perform on the field or on the court, but in school as well. We're going to go over three things that can help your athletes or your kid sleep better. My name's David Sabi here with Kids to Athlete to help parents raise happy, healthy, high-performing athletes. So yes, we're talking about sleep for performance. Three things that we need to go over is quality, consistency, and consumption. You're probably asking first question, well how much does my kid need to sleep? Well that depends. It depends on your kid's age, their activity level. If anything, every kid is different so you're going to kind of have to see where your kid is at when it comes to sleep. You have to test them out.

But according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, kids ages six to 12 need nine to 12 hours of sleep. Kids 13 to 18 need between eight and 10 hours of sleep. You can kind of use that as a guideline, as a range, to see where your kid needs to be. Just remember, make sure they're going within that guideline because there have been plenty of studies showing that kids that get less than eight hours of sleep per night will have; they get into bad things such as drinking, smoking, suicidal thoughts, and even feelings of sadness and hopelessness. Which remember, the one thing that I want to avoid is that, especially since I'm trying to build a happy, healthy, high-performing athlete.

Let's get into it. First point is quality. How do you help your athlete or your kid have quality sleep? You want to make sure they prepare for it. Create a nighttime routine. What's in your nighttime routine? Well, within 30 minutes to one hour before they go to bed, you want to shut down all screens, screens being TVs, mobile phones, shut down the computer screen. I know that your kid is probably doing homework and you're probably like, "Well, they got to be on that computer." Yes, but 30 minutes to one hour before really try to get the screens off. Yes, you can get blue light filters and screens that help reduce some of that stuff that he emits from the screens, but I think the best thing is to shut it all down.

The next thing is to have your athlete or your kid reserve their bed for sleeping only. Yes, that means that we have to do something. We have to set a spot for our kids to do their homework, to eat, to do whatever other activities they want to outside of maybe their room or their bed. Their bed should be for sleep only. It helps set that tone where once they get in bed, it's time just to relax, and so that's what we're looking for. Within their room, the darker, the better. You can wear a sleep mask and keeps you being distracted by light, but your skin is also very sensitive, so the darker your kid's room, the better. If you have a fish tank especially, keep those lights off or cover that tank.

The next thing is a nice cool room. A cool room will help the body settle into sleep. If it's hot, let's say it's summertime, you can use a cooling pad and that will help get quality sleep as well. But the key really is to have your nighttime routine, and it also goes into being consistent about using that.

Which brings us to my second point, consistency. Being consistent with your nighttime routine every night will help your kid or your athlete sleep better. Not only do you want to be consistent about the nighttime routine, you want to be consistent about the bedtime. When your kid is sleeping at the same time every night, it helps them get into a rhythm. Being consistent with the bedtime will also help being consistent in the morning. But if you focus on when they go to bed, that's what I think is going to help the most. If you find that your kid has been having some tough times going to sleep or waking up or just sleeping in general, look at how consistent they've been in getting to bed at a certain time. Because you'll probably find that if they have a hard time going to sleep at a certain time or waking up, it's probably because they've been sleeping at all different times of night, right? One night they'll go to bed at 12, the next nine o'clock, 10, or eight, it's all over the map. So be consistent with bedtime, be consistent with your nighttime routine.

The last thing I want to talk about is consumption, that includes food, drink, movies, music, and even social media. We know that if you have sugary foods, caffeine, energy drinks, that's going to affect that quality sleep. But, you also need to remember that movies, music, and social media can also affect sleep so watch the consumption of these things. Again, your nighttime routine should have no screens. No TV should mean that you probably can't watch a movie. No mobile phones means maybe social media should be off, but music can also affect your sleep. Really with consumption it's just be aware of what your kid is consuming, whether it's food or drink or visually or auditory. That's really the only point with consumption because it will affect sleep as well.

And so that's the only three things I have for you to focus on; quality, consistency and consumption. Quality, get that nighttime routine. Consistency, be consistent about that nighttime routine and bedtime. And then consumption, watch what you're consuming; food, drink, movies, music and social media.

That's all I have for you for today to help your athlete perform better. Use those techniques today to help your athletes sleep better so that they can perform better. I hope you liked this video, if you did, give it a thumbs up. Hit that Subscribe button and please leave a comment, let me know what you think, let me know what you're looking to learn. I will see you on the next video.