The Best Habit for Young Shred Girls? Getting Enough Sleep… And Most of Us Aren’t!

As an athlete, one of the most important things you can do is sleep like an athlete. I’ve been doing talks at bike shops, schools and colleges about goal-setting and how our daily habits can be the driving force behind our athletic success as much as any practice. When I’ve asked girls how many are getting at least 8 hours of sleep at night, though, only a couple of girls are raising their hands. YIKES! But also, yeah, I’ve totally been there. Between school, biking, homework, spending time with friends (on and offline), keeping up with that favorite TV show, and all those other after-school activities, no wonder you’re having trouble getting enough sleep! And even when you do get to bed early, I’m guessing a lot of you end up having trouble falling asleep.

I just saw a new study that showed that less than half of kids in school in the US are getting 9 hours of sleep each night. And the ones who are sleeping that much are significantly more likely to show a positive outlook toward school and other positive signs. Umm, NINE HOURS? That sounds like a ton of sleep, especially if you’ve constantly heard about getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night as ideal. The truth is, it’s more like 7 to 9 hours is the optimal amount, but very few people have time to get in 9 full hours of sleep, so the number has dropped to 7 to 8 when you hear about it. I think the problem with that, though, is when you hear 7 to 8 hours, you start thinking 6 isn’t so bad. But when 9 hours is the gold standard, suddenly, only getting 6 hours of sleep is so low!

We know that sleeping more means our bodies and brains have time to recover and prep for another hard day of training. We know that enough sleep means we’re alert, we feel happier, we’re less stressed out and we’re able to get more stuff done.

OK, so what does getting good sleep look like for you as an athlete?

• Aiming for 7 to 9 hours of sleep (this doesn’t count time spent in bed looking at your phone)
• Shutting down your phone/computer/etc. about 2 hours before you go to sleep (or at least shifting to night mode!)
• Not sleeping with your phone next to you with notifications on! (I put mine on Do Not Disturb, but have it set that if anyone on my Favorites calls me twice in a row, it comes through.)
• In fact, keeping your phone in another room is a great idea, but I know that’s easier said than done
• If you have trouble falling asleep because your brain won’t shut up, I love keeping a notepad and pen next to my bed so if I have an idea I don’t want to forget, I don’t dwell on it, I just jot it down and go back to sleep
• Keep your room nice and cool—65 is the optimal temp for sleeping, according to the experts
• Keep your room dark! If you don’t have blackout curtains or (like me) are a little scared of the dark, try wearing a sleep mask so you’re in the dark while sleeping but if you take the mask off, you can still have a nightlight on
• Keep it quiet! I like a fan for white noise, but other people I know love earplugs. Great for if you share the room with a snoring sibling!
• Try to skip hitting SNOOZE. Ugh, I know. It’s hard to do, but seriously, the more you hit snooze in the morning, the crappier your sleep—you’re not really getting into deep sleep between that 7 minutes, and you’re much better off just getting up!

I’ve been telling girls who talk about pulling all-nighters for school stuff the same thing for a while now: Instead of staying up all night to work on a report or study, PLEASE get a few hours of sleep and just get up extra early to finish. Trust me, you’ll get SO MUCH MORE DONE!

Anyone else have any awesome sleep tips?