An easy way to improve performance!!!

Yes, even this performance!!

In all seriousness, do you want an easy, inexpensive way to increase your performance?!  No need to buy anything or really change anything you do...at least not too much because its something we all already do.  Oh what ever could it be!?  Any guesses!?  Its SLEEP!!!

There have been plenty of studies done on the lack of sleep and the increase of cardiovascular diseases and even diabetes.  For some reason, people don't listen to those studies or even care.  However, when performance figures are included, then people perk up and listen (I'm not going to lie, I know I did when I read this report).  

The most prominent improvement was the 1.5-second drop in time during sprint drills after the athletes increased their hours of sleep. You can read the entire study here.  

Yes, I do realize the athletes slept for 11 hours, an impossible amount of time for us working mortals.  However, the study does offer some other tips to keep in mind:

• If you want sleep to really make a difference, it MUST be made a priority in your schedule.  "...as long as you get one good night's sleep during the week" doesn't cut it.  
• Of course we all can't sleep for 11 hours.  Try adding an extra 30 minutes to your sleep schedule.  Either go to bed earlier or wake up earlier.
• Try to keep the same sleep schedule everyday.  Go to bed and wake up at the same time everyday.  
• Avoid caffeine and alcohol a few hours before bedtime.  Also turn off the tv and/or computer for a bit before bed.  This helps calm both mind and body.

There you have it.  Turns out all those studies were right!