The date is the mid-nineties, the place is Manchester, the hero is Sir Alex Ferguson, and the event is the concern about the suspicious activities of his players outside the training facility, as they each get in their luxury cars and drive outside the limits of their powers.
life ranks
Nick Littlehills is a former professional golfer and marketing expert in sleep solutions, which is a sophisticated way of describing a man who was selling mattresses and condoms, and the only reason he used this formula was because the man decided to make an important change in his life in the mid-'90s.
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Like any dedicated man, Littlehills was talking a lot about the importance of sleep for everyone, before he decided to turn to the athletes for advice, and when he searched for the nearest place that would allow him, he found no better than the local club in his city, only by chance that this club was called Manchester United.
Of course, at first, everyone took him lightly;
sleep coach?
What nonsense is this!
Does sleep need training?
What will this coach tell me?
Is flipping from one position to another, closing the curtains, and setting the alarm become a job that people get paid for?
Why do we need a sleep coach and Koeman coaches Barcelona?
Nick Littlehills
What contributed to this initially false impression was the fact that Littlehills' appearance did not inspire confidence;
A very handsome young man who used to work as a marketing expert and seller of mattresses, this puts you in front of two explanations that are not third;
Either he's a professional crook trying to woo the circles of wealthy celebrities with a worthless commodity, or he's a handsome young man who works as a marketing expert and salesman for mattresses and really has something to add, which tells you that, in fact, there was only one possibility.
In fact, that wasn't Littlehills' job, but he needed clear proof of the benefit of what he was doing, and the opportunity came with Gary Pallister, United defender at the time, who was suffering from a chronic back injury that did not work with conventional treatment, and it was Littlehills who discovered Reason.
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"The method and position that Pallister used to sleep was disrupting cell regeneration and straining his back muscles, and this was the main reason for the failure of conventional treatment."
Over time, Pallister got a lot better.
Littlehills' method would never have cured his injury under any circumstances, but it would have helped him recover faster, because the way he slept would cancel out the effect of the clinical treatment he was receiving at the club, as if nothing had happened.
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Gary Pallister
This incident caused a huge stir in English football at the time.
After a while, the press began to notice the strange man driving to and from Carrington, Manchester United's training ground, before Arsene Wenger - the Arsenal coach who has endured so much ridicule for his training methods and control of his players' dietary patterns, some of which came from Ferguson himself - smiled He cunningly said, "Now clubs are starting to look at the side factors. Some are starting to look at the impact of yoga and Pilates."
under pressure
In his book, Soccer Injury Prevention & Treatment, John Gallucci, medical coordinator for more than 600 professional NFL players and former chief assistant coach of the New York Red Bulls, believes that sleep deprivation, or disorder It has three main risks to athletes, specifically football players.
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Football Injury Treatment and Prevention book
The first, a priori, is slow reactions.
Sleep experts, so to speak, have been studying the effect of sleep deprivation and disturbed sleep patterns for years, and their studies conclude that reaction times are reduced by 300% (three times less) if the athlete gets a full, stable, and calm night of sleep.
This number is terrifying, of course, and it is a deceptive number as well;
Simply because the reactions in a game such as football usually take fractions of a second, and in such a narrow time space the differences become too small to carry a marketing value, even if they are important, so the study’s owners resort to the percentage instead of the real numbers, because to say that the time The reaction shrinks from 60 milliseconds to 20 that's not impressive to readers.
In addition, the study often compared the two extremes of the stick, that is, between total sleep deprivation for 20 hours, for example, and getting a full night's sleep.
This is like saying that putting your shoes on before you go out in the rain protects you from getting wet by 500%.
In fact, if we didn't know that Gallucci had nothing to do with Little Hills, we'd say it was him who referred to him with such an effective marketing formula.
The important thing is that the problem here was not wearing shoes before going out in the rain, but rather that there was a whole world of coaches and players that did not believe that it actually protected you from getting wet.
This is the danger of the intuitions that no one usually pays attention to;
Therefore, most players believe that 6 hours of sleep will not differ much from 5 or 7, and that one day without sleep per week will not make a huge difference, and some consider this as evidence of his strength and endurance, and sometimes a cause for pride.
The truth is that sleep deprivation or its disturbance increases the levels of cortisol, the hormone responsible for nervous and psychological stress, and this increase affects the validity and accuracy of decisions, whether they are physical or mental or a combination of this and that.
This is the second danger of sleep disturbance for football players, the regularity and quality of sleep may be the difference between stopping a difficult shot or watching it enter the goal, or between completing dribbling in the penalty area and failing and causing a dangerous rebound, or between receiving the ball correctly or mishandling it. awarding it to the opponent's attacker in a build-of-play position, i.e. in short;
Everything that happens in Barcelona Coman matches.
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In these situations, twenty milliseconds really matter, without the need for statistical exaggeration or trickery.
In fact, you might be surprised what can happen in just half a second of a match in a difficult situation.
This increase in cortisol also negatively affects the rate of cell renewal and recovery from muscle strains and tears.
Also, disturbed sleep prevents the body from storing glucose in the muscles in sufficient proportions, and thus affects the energy available in moments of high physical exertion, all of which increases the risk of injury and reduces recovery rates from current injuries.
This is the third sleep disorder risk in soccer players.
To sleep
"There is no better way to recover from sleep."
(LeBron James)
Of course we know what you're thinking now;
All of the above is a very expensive way of saying sleep is important, a "sleep solutions marketing expert" way of saying that we expect you didn't need to read any report to find out.
Even LeBron James' statement sounds a little silly, like Gareth Bale's post-match press release.
This leaves us with only one choice;
Telling you about the 8 Littlehills tips for organizing the sleep of footballers and getting the most out of them, and if these tips work for footballers, they will probably work for you.
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Note:
Of course we would have liked it to be 10 Tips to title the report "10 Important Sleep Tips" and make it more exciting and marketable, but Littlehills let us down on that.
1- sleep cycle
Good sleep is not measured in hours, but in cycles, and the duration of each cycle is 90 minutes.
Of course the interpretation of this has nothing to do with the Barca Coman matches, but with the fact that this is the time when we seamlessly transition between a deep sleep state and a lighter, less immersive state in which our eyes move quickly.
Therefore, it is important for the footballer to regulate his sleep in multiples of 90 minutes, and to ensure that he does not wake up before the end of the cycle.
2- sleep strategy
In his book Sleep, Littlehills advises footballers to plan their sleep for the entire week, meaning they need 35 sleep cycles (90 minutes or the equivalent of a full Barcelona Coman game) per week.
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Sleep book
3- Sleep like a baby
The Circadian Process is defined as the set of mental, psychological, and physical patterns of behavior that accompany the 24-hour cycle, and what Littlehills says is strongly influenced by the movement of day and night, light and darkness.
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There is nothing new here, except for the man's saying that we humans, before the invention of the electric lamp, did not sleep as we do now, but in polyphasically intermittent fits, just like children;
More than once, and for shorter periods.
Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, organizes his sleep in 5 naps during the day, each of which is an hour and a half, and most of the top clubs in Europe now have sleeping rooms (Sleeping Pods) equipped for players' naps before matches on their land, or directly after hard training, to ensure that they get the greatest amount of sleep. recover.
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Swansea City FC Install Sleep Pods To Increase Wellbeing During Tough Pre-Season Training http://t.co/KfFRKl5gSd pic.twitter.com/Ush40kXzw9
— Expressivus (@expressivus) July 22, 2015
Note:
We were going to title the report "10 Tips to Sleep Like Ronaldo" but we think you don't need bait to read our reports.
Of course we're joking, wait for a bait in the next report.
4- Meditate
Take half an hour (a third of your usual sleep cycle) to rest every once in a while.
This rest contributes to improving your normal sleep cycle even if you do not spend it asleep, just relaxation is enough.
Sleep experts call them "CRPs" or "controlled recovery periods."
5- wake up
If you've been surprised that people tell you that you're sleeping wrong, be prepared for the same people to tell you that you're waking up wrong as well.
It is very important to have a specific routine when you wake up, specifically in the 90 minutes after you wake up, and this routine should include the following;
Delaying access to smart devices and the Internet, emptying the bowels, drinking water or liquids, getting a nutritious breakfast, and finally, some light exercise.
Note: In the event that this wake-up after a match for Barcelona Coman is added to the previous routine;
Screaming aimlessly, scheduling a psychiatrist, and punching hard pillows and mattress pads, especially if it was Littlehills who sold them to you.
6- Sunrise and sunset
What do you do if you live in a dark room that doesn't get enough light?
Littlehills advises you to buy a light unit that simulates the sunrise and sunset at the specified time, because this process adjusts your biological clock and your body hormones, for example, sunrise light reduces the secretions of melatonin (the relaxation hormone) and stimulates serotonin (the hormone of happiness and activity).
7- Get a big and comfortable mattress
This is the easiest tip possible, but it is also the most subtle;
Littlehills advises footballers to buy the largest mattress their room allows.
What the guy says is that the maximum mattress size is barely enough for two adults, so using a smaller size for savings will directly affect your sleep quality.
We agree with Littlehills on this point, no reviews here.
8- Sleep in this position
Sleep in the fetal position (arms and knees pressed to the chest) on the side of your strong arm, opposite it from the mattress, and most importantly, always try to breathe through your nose because mouth breathing reduces the stability and quality of sleep of course.
Of course, if all of the above does not convince you, remember the following;
We are now the beginning of the third decade of the new millennium, a quarter of a century after the first incident, and the hero is still Little Hills, who is now working with a group of the best football players in the world, in addition to clubs such as Real Madrid and Chelsea, and teams such as England, and a long list of athletes Olympians.
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Sources
Nick Littlehills;
Meet the man who helps Ronaldo sleep better - The Guardian
Do you get tired of trying to sleep for eight hours straight?
- The Daily Mail
The importance of sleep for soccer players - Soccer Today
How does sleep affect your performance as a footballer?
- Total Football Analysis
How to sleep like a Premier League player - BBC
Sleep Book by Nick Littlehills - Amazon
What is the biological clock?
Sleep Foundation
Ronaldo eats 6 meals and sleeps 5 times a day – Insider