How to PR a Night's Rest

Poor sleep is a growing problem in our society with 50-70 million adults being affected by chronic sleep disturbance (1). Sleep disturbance is linked to reduced immune function, poor tissue healing capacity, and impaired pain processing (1). If you are not sleeping well or making sleep a priority, this means you are more susceptible to getting sick, being injured, and staying injured for longer. This is significant-especially in the CrossFit world where you are pushing your body to function at a high capacity with each workout.

Want to heal from a nagging injury? Make your sleep a priority. Want to PR your snatch? Improve your sleep hygiene. Want to ward off heart disease? Sleep 7-9 hours a night.

Try 1-2 sleeping habits below for the next month, and reap the benefits of a better night's rest.

Obviously sleep is not the only thing you need for high performance, you also need a balance of good nutrition (see healthy by habit for help!) , a good support system, and a good exercise routine (CrossFit bear ). Pursue this balance and the PRs will flow more readily.

The WODFather Greg Glassman says it best: “Successful people pursue hard things, unsuccessful people avoid them.” Getting adequate sleep is not always easy. It takes effort and discipline to make time to sleep. CrossFit is all about the pursuit of excellence in all types of domains: strength, flexibility, coordination, aerobic capacity, nutrition, and more. Be excellent in all things-including sleep.

If you are showing up to your CrossFit box regularly, you have the capacity and the discipline to make quality sleep a priority. The pursuit of sleep excellence is worth your time.

Cheers to sleeping more and crushing some PRs in the near future! Happy Thursday!

Lindsey Hughey, PT, DPT, OCS, FAAOMPT

Owner & Operator of drivePT

Reference:

1. Siengsukon CF, Al-dughmi M, Stevens S. Sleep Health Promotion: Practical Information for Physical Therapists. Phys Ther. 2017;97:826–836