TFS#19: Why You Need More Beauty Sleep

We are all aware of the three pillars of health: diet, exercise, and sleep.

But somehow, sleep is often overlooked.

Getting more sleep improves cognition, reaction time, metabolism, and our overall physical and mental well being.

While a lot of us have no trouble watching our nutrition for competition, we don’t always remember to put fuel in our “sleep tank” too.

Sleep affects your body, your mind, and the complex interplay between the two.

The Body

Sleep regulates our blood sugar and hormone levels.

Without it, your testosterone goes down, your cortisol goes up, and havoc is wreaked on your body's balance.

Blood sugar affects our energy levels and glycogen reserves, growth hormone and testosterone reductions hinder muscle growth, and cortisol elevations tell your body to break down the muscle it does have.

As you can imagine, all of this affects how you perform on the mat.

The Mind

Insufficient sleep degrades your memory.

Your brain is like a computer, it should be shut off every so often to maintain functionality and effectiveness.

When the necessary amount of sleep isn’t met, learning and performance are compromised. Keep in mind, studies show that 17 hours of sleeplessness is equivalent to being too drunk to legally drive a car.

Overall Alignment

Jiu-Jitsu is both physically and mentally demanding, so you’ll be at your best when your body and mind are in sync.

Will you make the right decisions? Will you be able to zone out the crowd and hear your coach? Will you assess risks and rewards within split seconds?

Sleep loss slows down your reaction time.

The difference between a win and a loss can come down to a microsecond...are you willing to take that risk?

Sleepiness will throw your competitive edge right off the mat.

Action Items

• Develop a regular sleep pattern - Most people suck at this. Try to get to bed at the same time every night and try get up at the same time every morning.

• Stay off electronics (especially social media) - Your mind races when you’re scrolling through social media. You want the opposite during your wind down, you want to allow your brain to decelerate before hitting the hay.

• Stretch, foam roll, warm shower - Relaxing your body will help your brain relax as well. Your body will be “prepped” to sleep when you are physically relaxed.

• Go for a walk, journal - Doing something physically low impact helps you wind down. Walks will help your mind reorganize as you reflect on your day. Journaling can have a similar effect.

Now let's start rolling...

Techniques To Explore

1. Berimbolo That Anyone Can Do
Even if your target isn’t to take the back, it sets up for great positioning. You can use this to transition to side control or full mount.

2. Understanding The Counters To Your Berimbolos
The success of your moves are dependent on how well equipped your opponent is. Understanding the defense can help make your offense more potent.

3. Some Great Off-Balancing Tips For Setups
These few off-balancing variations are great way to keep the top player guessing your next move. As a guard player, you don’t want to give your opponent time to stabilize and begin picking apart your open guard.

Quick Tips

>> 5 steps to improve your Jiu-Jitsu learning process

>> Have you thought about what you would do with more free time?

Closing Thought

Everyone loves to sleep.

But why don’t we get enough of it?

We live in a time where dopamine hits are easily accessible.

Being good at sleeping has now become a skill.

Luckily, it’s a skill we can all learn.

Once you get good at it, it gets easier.