COMING ON SLEEPS AND BOUNDS…
| Published date | 02 April 2024 |
| Publication title | Huddersfield Daily Examiner |
"It's always our aim to develop an environment that allows our athletes to perform at their best."
UK Sports Institute performance innovation consultant Dr Luke Gupta, a sleep and circadian scientist, explains: "Sleep is a pillar of health, wellbeing and performance. So in terms of health, it is alongside, not below, diet and exercise.
"Sleep interacts with every day, every part of our life - it's the foundation of wellbeing and health and allows us to function on a day-today basis. It's crucially important."
Team GB weightlifter Emily Campbell, 29 - who won a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and is hoping for further medal success at Paris 2024 - agrees "sleep is absolutely paramount".
She continues: "Sleep is important when you're walking around as a human, never mind as an athlete trying to perform at the top level. I definitely try and sleep as much as I can - and who doesn't love sleeping? I really look forward to going to bed at night."
But before she hits the sack, Emily, who aims to get eight to nine hours' sleep a night, as well has napping for 30 minutes to an hour during the day, always follows a bedtime routine.
"It's really simple," she explains. "Coming upstairs and having a shower, doing my skincare, I get my bedtime snack, I get in bed, put my fairylights on and then just eat my little snack, watch a bit of TV and then I wind down and go to sleep."
Emily with medal at OLYMPIC
The snack is usually some form of protein and carbs for slow digestion for the night.
"So that could be a protein yoghurt, or some beef jerky," Emily says. "Sometimes I have half a tub of ice cream, or some biscuits or something along those lines for my carbs - a nice sweet snack before you go to bed is really good."
But what if her bedtime routine is compromised - does it affect her training or performance?
"No, not massively," she admits.
"I always think part of being an athlete is about being adaptable, and sometimes you can't do the same things. But it's about being organ- ised and trying to make it as similar as possible - and if it doesn't happen [perfectly], it's not the end of the...
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