Sleep and Relaxation – Eliminating Sleep Problems and Learning to Relax

A lot of athletes have problems relaxing an sleeping before important games and competitions.  They often toss and turn all night thinking about what is going to happen at the competition or game. As a result they can’t fall a sleep or keep waking up over and over again. To make matters worse the athlete starts to look at the clock and starts to worry about the fact that they are not sleeping and how little time they have. Of course this makes going to sleep and relaxing very difficult and leads to fatigue, insufficient recovery, loss of vital energy and can keep athletes from performing well.

It’s important to remember that how we think and what we think determines how we feel. How we feel greatly determines how we behave and how well we perform. Being able to stay calm and relaxed will allow you to be rested, full of energy and performing your best.

Problems with sleep as automatic as it may seem, is usually a response created by the athlete. Most of the time by unhelpful internal chatter.  They say things to themselves over and over again, usually very quickly in anxious voice. Another reason is over thinking and planning based on problematic scenarios. Many athletes will discover that in their mind they are literally bombarded with pictures of problem scenarios, in which they are making mistakes, are ridiculed or badly outmatched by their opponents. They will repeat replay these scenarios in their mind over and over all night. Many are not even aware that they are doing this, only noticing how they feel and not realizing what is creating these feelings.

I help athletes eliminate their sleep problems by teaching them how to relax and change the scenarios in their mind, as well as how to slow down their inner thoughts and dialog. I also show them very powerful physiological tools, such as breathing techniques that automatically calm their mind and relax their body. As a result athletes are calm, rested and full of energy before important competitions. The beauty of this approach is that this is an accelerated process for change where most athletes notice major benefits even in the first session.

Next steps…