
There are three fundamental fitness principles you need to stress, encourage, and manage to maximize the growth and performance of your players: proper sleep hygiene, [sound nutritional habits](/article/nutritional-habits-for-performance), and [physical fitness](/article/physical-fitness-for-performance). This article will address the proper sleep hygiene that will improve your players’ focus stamina.

## Primary Concepts

- Non-REM sleep contributes to the repair and replenishment of our brain and muscles. Sufficient non-REM sleep allows a refreshed and focused feeling the next day. This phase of sleep is important for daily maintenance of the body.
- Upon completion of each non-REM sleep cycle the body enters an REM sleep cycle. This phase is arguably of greater consequence to gaming performance as it allows the proper processing of memories and learned behaviors. This means with insufficient REM sleep a player will fail to capitalize on their efforts of developing and mastering skills and techniques in practice.
- Non-REM and REM sleep phases occur in cycles. One leads to the next. If you are awakened the process starts over. The phase lengths are a bit different for everybody but generally each cycle lasts from 1.5 to 2 hours. Get to sleep. Stay asleep. Train better as a result.

## Proper Sleep Hygiene

The name of the game here is to get to sleep easily, stay asleep uninterrupted as long as possible, and allow your body and mind to be rejuvenated for tomorrow’s efforts.

1. Have consistent times for sleep (rise and fall)
2. No stimulants after 2pm.
3. No eating 2 hours prior to laying down
4. No screen at least 30 minutes prior to laying down
5. Remain upright (sitting or standing) until laying down to sleep

## Why

1. **Have consistent times for sleep** – Our bodies work on a 24-hour rhythm. We should wake “alert and fresh” and tire as we do the things through the day. There is a natural ebb and flow to our energy levels. Allow this rhythm to improve your ability to get to sleep, stay asleep, and when awakening have the greatest amount of focusing power to compete.
2. **No stimulants after 2pm** – This is straightforward. Caffeine has an 8-hour window where it negatively impacts your sleep as it breaks down over time. You need plenty of time to get all the stimulants out of your body prior to attempting to sleep. The benefits of stimulants are notable but need to be appropriately deployed to prevent sleep degradation.  
3. **No eating 2 hours prior to laying down** – This is also very straightforward. Large meals or “late night snacks” (especially when sugary) can disrupt sleep behaviors. Eating prior to sleep also typically leads to excessive fat storage of those calories.
4. **No screen at least 30 minutes prior to laying down** – A study conducted by Harvard researchers showed that blue light (aka computer screens) had twice the suppressing effect of other types of light at the same brightness. Check out this article to learn more: [https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/blue-light-has-a-dark-side]
5. **Remain upright (sitting or standing) until laying down to sleep** – This habit is about conditioning the body to transition from wakefulness to sleep. If we lie down without attempting to sleep, the body cannot use the position as an indicator that we should change behaviors.  

Sleep should be an amazing experience. Most people long for climbing into their comfy beds. Make sure to optimize your sleep and supercharge both you and your players’ development efforts. Following the 5 simple habits listed above will create a better focus stamina and more positive outlook.

### Bonus Tips

- Find your sweet spot for sleep temperature and lighting
- Identify and fix/remove recurrent sounds, lights, pains, issues that wake you
- Daily exercise helps with sleep consistency

If you have any questions, thoughts, or concerns do not hesitate to reach out to me, Nathan Berggrun at productivegaming@agamersadvantage.com


Proper Sleep Hygiene for Performance

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