You may have noticed myself and Coach Beau wearing a simplistically plain “smart watch” on our wrists over the past few months. I have noted it on at least two other member’s wrist as well. This simple little device is called a “WHOOP”. It’s essentially a really fancy version of a FitBit or Apple Watch without any smart watch features. It’s designed for one purpose. To track a whole bunch of biomarkers and it does that very well. I won’t get in to any of the details on what it does but if you’re interested, track down myself or Coach Beau at the gym and we’ll be happy to show you in detail.
Anyways, one of the things the WHOOP tracks (like other smart watches with fitness apps) is sleep. Whoop is committed to making sure it’s members are educated on the numbers and data they are getting from the device and in one of their recent emails, they discussed sleep performance. More importantly, how to increase the level of deep sleep or “slow wave sleep” (SWS) as it is referred to in the science world.
See, we dont’ actually build muscle when we are at the gym. It’s in the rest and recovery phase; when we sleep, that we do that. The best type of sleep for recovery is SWS. In fact, 95% of of our naturally produced human growth hormone is produced during this period of time. It is also when we strengthen our immune system and repair bone and joint tissue.
Across of tens of thousands of WHOOP wearers, they have a nightly average of 1 hour 26 minutes of SWS per night. That’s not a lot. Those people averaged 6 hours and 55 minutes minutes for a sleep duration each night. The SWS represents 15-25% of an average adults total sleep duration. This means if we reduce our sleep duration by an hour, we are bringing that SWS down by around 17 minutes. That’s considerable when we think about the fact that that is when our body recovers, heals and builds.
From WHOOPS data and research, here are their top recommendations for getting a better nights rest and in particular more SWS:
Blue-light blocking glasses before bed. Opinions vary, but it may be worth putting them on up to 3 hours before you go to bed.
Ear plugs while sleeping.
Breathwork to relieve stress, either during the day or prior to sleep.
Massage therapy, and in particular the practice of cupping
Steam room and sauna, with the dry heat of a sauna correlating with the greater proportional increase in deep sleep between the two.
Plant-based diet. This is obviously a more significant lifestyle choice.
The following things were logged in the WHOOP journal by members and have a negative impact on deep sleep:
Stress. When our members report feeling stressed they average 8 fewer minutes of sleep and 1 minute less of deep sleep.
Device in bed. Use of a screened device in bed corresponds with a 1-minute decrease in total sleep and deep sleep.
Shared bed. Although WHOOP members average 12 more minutes of sleep per night when they share a bed with another person, they actually lose 1 minute of deep sleep. This doesn’t come as a surprise though, noises and movements from your partner in bed may often diminish your sleep quality.
Also, consuming alcohol before bed can be extremely detrimental to deep sleep. When your body is forced to process alcohol during sleep it has trouble getting beyond light sleep and into deep sleep.
And the number 1 tip according to the WHOOP Data for increasing the amount of deep sleep you get is: Sleep Consistency.
Sleep consistency helps maintain your circadian rhythm, the body’s 24-hour internal clock. When your body is on a predictable schedule it runs more efficiently and can better anticipate the onset of sleep each night, which in turn benefits your deep sleep.
So there we have it. A little bit of real world research backed by ten of thousands of participants over years and years of continuous study and data. I imagine there wasn’t a whole lot of new information for many of you, but I can tell you that the real world implications, and application of them, will make a big difference in your fitness.
Sleep well my friend!