In the busy lives of student-athletes, sleep often gets paired back to create time for other things: practice, studying, socializing. That's not a good tradeoff, says sport physiologist Peter Davis, who has a long history of working with Olympic athletes and is currently the Director and Founder of Sports Performance Management.For one thing, Davis says, sleep is an essential recovery tool for an athlete who has played in strenuous matches or completed a rigorous training session.Among the points Davis touches on in this interview:
- How athletes can prepare for a good night's sleep by dialing back the electronic stimulation that surrounds them in the hour or two before they go to bed.
- How success depends as much on what is done outside the gym – eating, sleeping, etc. – as what is done inside.