Olympic Athlete’s Need This Much Sleep

With the 2021 Olympics around the corner, we can’t help but wonder how important sleep is to Olympic athletes. As a Mattress company, we are always trying to provide our clients with the best beds for sleep and take it a step further by providing the best sleeping tips.

“What is the correlation between good sleep and athletic performance?” we wondered. After some research and a few attempts at beating Olympic swim times (we failed miserably) we did learn some great data about the correlation between Olympic athletes and good sleep.

The first thing we learned is that Olympic athletes need seven to nine hours of sleep per night. “Sleeping well for at least eight hours a night lets your body rejuvenate after a hard day’s work — no matter if your work was training for the Olympics, cleaning house, taking care of family, or going to work. All of an athlete’s hard work can be wasted if an athlete doesn’t get the right amount” (Alaska Sleep).

Knowing that Olympic athletes need 8 hours of sleep for optimal performance, we started to become curious about what type of night time routine they use to wind down at night. We imagine nerves and anxious thoughts would play a factor for athletes the night before a big race. According to Alaska Sleep, Olympic Athletes have a night time routine to help them wind down before bed. Some ways they help their bodies wind down is by taking a relaxing walk, reading a book (a real one, not one on your phone), and limit or even eliminate the use of technology for 90 minutes before bedtime.

All in all, we learned that Olympians value sleep as one of the most important parts of their athletic performance. If Olympians need sleep, don’t you agree that we all need optimal sleep to live a fuller life?