What do people think is tha appropriate level of sleep leading into major competition.
I think everyone is different. I have found that I need little sleep & if over rested, I have more energy to be nervous.
In working with a sports psych. that figured out the different needs (he worked with one golfer who was as mature as a 6 year old & messing up in tournaments… he got him to play basketball or run before his tournament play to burn off the nervous energy & his playing dramatically improved).
Some epople require that nervous energy to get “up” for the meet… completely individual.
I remember in my “competitive” days I would go to bed early and try to force myself to get 8 hours of sleep before a game. I ended up tossing and turning in bed, expierencing more stress and performing worse. In college I tried going to bed just when I actually felt tired, and I found 5.5-6 hours a night before a game to be enough.
Whats odd is I would not be able to function on that amount of sleep on a typical day, only before games. I am not recommending this, just what I have felt. On the flip side, I have a player thats sleep 10 hours a night before a game, and will take a nap between classes.
I am the same Chris.
I eventuallly figured getting 6 hours good sleep was far better than spending a total of 10 in the bed with 4 of those hours spent restless tossing an turning and worrying about the game.
Now I get out a mindless violent flick the night before a game and watch until I feel tired.
my advice would be to keep everything the same.if you normally hit the sack at 10pm then stick with this unless you are more tired than usual.changing something as in sleep can have adverse effects the night before a meet.just keep the sleep clock the same to avoid the tossing and turning.the same goes for your race plan…keep it the same like you do in practice!!!
I find that listening to the radio or whatever u want helps me lossen up and sleep soundly. i dont know about any scientific info on this but it works for me.