Reflective Essay Sleep

Usain Bolt, an eight-time Olympic Champion and 11 times World Champion, regards sleep as the most important part of his training regime. I have recently established issues with my sleeping pattern, due to waking up earlier to train and doing homework late at night. This decrease in my sleep duration has affected not only my mood and productivity at school but has made me more tired and lethargic at my sports training. I, therefore, chose to look at my sleep quality and duration and how that affects my health. I hoped to improve my sleep quality and duration by implementing sleep-inducing activities or mechanisms that are linked to health benefits. Sleep is a time for restoring the body’s energy supplies, which have depleted during the day’s activities. Alhola and Polo-Kantola (2007) suggest “that people with a very high level of physical and intellectual activity need more sleep to recuperate fully.” Furthermore, athletes involved in an intense training program should have at least 9-10 hours sleep each night, and having a short nap after training would be beneficial to recovery.Sleep acts as an essential time for runners, when water reabsorption occurs as the kidney balances water, sodium and electrolytes during sleep, and regenerating damaged

“Sleep Cycle” is an app which issues sound analysis to wake you up during your lightest sleep phases. Sleep cycles last around 90 minutes, and are repeated throughout the night and during those sleep phases your movements vary, and the app uses sound analysis to identify those sleep cycles. The app will then wake you up between a desired 30-minute period, when you are in your lightest sleep phase. Along with using this app, I maintained a sleep diary, which I wrote about how well I slept, if I woke up during the night, what I ate or drunk before bed, rating stress level and what I think might have affected my sleep