How Team GB plan to optimise their sleep for the Paris Olympics – and how you can too

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Talent, coaching, dedication and food regimen are all a part of the recipe for Olympic success. But there’s one other completely essential ingredient for a medal-winning efficiency – good sleep.

Recognising the position it performs for Team GB athletes, Greg Retter, its head of efficiency companies, says: “Travelling, competing in different time zones and experiencing unfamiliar sleeping conditions can all have an impact on the amount of sleep athletes get at an Olympic Games. It’s always our aim to develop an environment that allows our athletes to perform at their best.”

And UK Sports Institute efficiency innovation marketing consultant Dr Luke Gupta, a sleep and circadian scientist, explains: “Sleep is a pillar of health, wellbeing and performance. So in terms of health, it is alongside, not below, diet and exercise. Sleep interacts with every day, every part of our life – it’s the foundation of wellbeing and health and allows us to function on a day-to-day basis. It’s crucially important.”

Team GB weightlifter Emily Campbell, 29 – who gained a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and is hoping for additional medal success at Paris 2024 – agrees “sleep is absolutely paramount”.

Campbell continues: “Sleep is important when you’re walking around as a human, never mind as an athlete trying to perform at the top level. I definitely try and sleep as much as I can – and who doesn’t love sleeping? I really look forward to going to bed at night.”

But earlier than she hits the sack, Campbell, who goals to get eight to 9 hours’ sleep an evening, as properly has napping for half-hour to an hour throughout the day, at all times follows a bedtime routine.

“It’s a really simple,” she explains. “Coming upstairs and having a shower, doing my skincare, I get my bedtime snack, I get in bed, put my fairy-lights on and then just eat my little snack, watch a bit of TV and then I wind down and go to sleep.”

The snack is normally some type of protein and carbs for gradual digestion for the evening. “So that could be a protein yoghurt, or some beef jerky,” Campbell says. “Sometimes I have half a tub of ice cream, or some biscuits or something along those lines for my carbs – a nice sweet snack before you go to bed is really good.”

But what if her bedtime routine is compromised for any motive – does it have an effect on her coaching or efficiency?

“No, not massively,” she admits. “I always think part of being an athlete is about being adaptable, and sometimes you can’t do the same things. But it’s about being organised and trying to make it as similar as possible – and if it doesn’t happen [perfectly], it’s not the end of the world.”

The weightlifter, who trains day by day other than Sundays, additionally has her eye on a novel sleep help for the Paris 2024 Games – sleep pods offered by Team GB’s Official Sleep Partner Dreams, at the crew’s Performance Lodge, the place athletes can practice, eat, relaxation, recuperate and put together for competitors away from the busy Olympic Village.

The ‘Dreams Sleep Retreat’ will characteristic eight sleep pods by which athletes can nap, which can additionally help efficiency. A 2023 Spanish evaluate of research on the impact of daytime napping on sport efficiency discovered a 30-60 minute post-lunch nap has a useful impact on bodily and cognitive efficiency, and reduces perceived fatigue.

Campbell, who has tried the sleep pods, provides: “There’s one where you can completely lie down and shut the lid and shut out the world, and then there’s what I’d call the napping one, which is more like an elevated chair. You can lie on them and there’s a little screen you can pull across while you sleep. I’ll definitely be booking those out when I’m in Paris – they’re very comfortable and they look really cool.”

And how does she fee her probabilities of one other medal at the 2024 Games?

“You never know – weightlifting is one of those unpredictable sports, but training is going well, I’m enjoying it,” she says. “I’m looking forward to Paris, and I just hope I can get on the stage and be rewarded for the hard work I put in.”

So, what suggestions can non-athletes take from Team GB’s sleep habits?

Establish a bedtime routine

Gupta, who helps athletes work out their optimum sleep routines, says that is key for everybody – whether or not it’s dimming the lights at a sure time and enjoyable, doing all of your skincare and taking a shower, and many others.

“A routine provides cues to let our brains and bodies know that sleep is coming,” he explains. “It usually comes down to the things that allow you to wind down from the day. How people do that will be very individual, but essentially it gives them the opportunity in the evening to relax and engage in activities that allow them to do that. Routine is the guardian of good sleep.”

Stick to common occasions

“Sleep works well when it’s regular,” Gupta explains. “Routine is important in terms of your approach to sleep, but also routine in terms of the time you wake up in the morning is arguably even more important. Waking up at the same time of day can regulate sleep in a way that allows it to occur in a pattern which is repeated day after day.”

If setting a precise time day by day isn’t reasonable, Gupta says a ‘sleep window’ – a time frame when you’re extra possible to get up – is likely to be extra applicable.

Make positive you sleep for lengthy sufficient

Eight hours an evening is commonly touted as the optimum sleep purpose. And whereas Gupta suggests seven to 9 hours a every evening is right, he says “maybe six is ok” if that’s not at all times achievable.

“Someone’s sleep need might change from one day to the next, and someone’s ability to achieve that need will be more challenged on some nights than others,” he says. “So the expectation that you’re going to get eight hours every single night is not helpful – sometimes you’ll get that, and sometimes you won’t, but being aware of that is key.”

Keep lie-ins to a minimal 

Gupta says though a little bit of a lie-in is ok typically, it’s essential not to sleep too lengthy in the morning, because it might have a knock-on impact in a while. “It’s almost balancing the books a little, by having a bit of time to lie-in to allow you to catch up on lost sleep, but not overdoing it to the point whereby you’re taking away from some of that drive to sleep that you need later at night.”