If you want a good night’s sleep, sleep like a linebacker

Sleep like a baby?

No thanks. You know how the joke goes. “I woke up crying every three hours.”

Better to sleep like a linebacker.

As NFL coaches know, a good night’s sleep can give a pro player an edge. But if he’s just flown across three time zones and has a 1:00 PM game, forget about edge. He’ll be lucky to stay awake in the huddles.

And many players are in their early 20s. So they still need to sleep like teens, who require about nine hours per night.

But for a busy NFL player, it can be hard to carve out a solid nine. That’s why coaches look for any small advantage to give their players the rest they need.

Here are two key sleep tips that many coaches give their players. But they’re good tips for everyone …

1) Sleep in a pitch-black room. Your body produces melatonin while you sleep. Melatonin helps regulate your sleep/wake cycles. But too much light in the room reduces your melatonin output. So… No TVs left on. No lamps. Window shades down.

2) Sleep therapists say 68 degrees is the perfect air temperature for sleep.

Get those two factors in line, then put your head on the pillow and count footballs soaring through the uprights. 3… 6… 9… 12…

Sources:
“Sleeping Your Way to the Top” Kevin Clark, Wall St. Journal, 11/14/12, online.wsj.com