Tips to Help You Fall Asleep Fast for a Better Tennis Game
It’s not just a great racquet that can up your game, sleep will play an integral role in helping you ramp up your tennis game
The biggest, most fulfilling element of being good at tennis, is knowing that you’ve done everything in the right way to get you to where you needed to be to be a success. Kickstarting changes in routine and habit will always come as an eye-opener to many people, but dedication gets you results.
As we said, the key that unlocks all sorts of doors in your tennis game is sound sleep.
You want to get the quality, not just the quantity when it comes to your time in bed, so make it count; don’t just clock up hours under the sheets for no reason, after all, sustaining REM sleep will allow you to wake up feeling like a fresh, rejuvenated player who can take on what lies ahead.
There’s a handful of resourceful pointers below that you can tap into. Are you ready for the challenge?
Prepare your mind at night
One of the key components to getting good sleep is having your mind in the right place and prepared to send you into a place where you can profit from premium slumber.
Around two hours before bedtime, set the lights down low in the house, and make it ambient. Then go take a warm shower to relax you, followed by a small glass of water to keep you hydrated as you sleep.
The sleepadvisor.org has looked into the effects of light and sleep, and they advocate the scene setting tip in order to train the brain for sleep.
The Sleep Advisor isn’t alone in supporting this, as NASA also believe in the science behind how light has a big effect on your brain.
It’s also recommended that you leave any computer work or activities that involve screens until the next day, instead of at night in the lead up to bed, or you will block the melatonin release in the brain at this vital time, just when you need it.
Kill the noise
When you get in of an evening, you need time to wind down, and that is perfectly fine. However, it’s how you do it that is important. For sports players and athletes, watching sport on TV can be a good way to relax. The trick here is to do it with the mute button on.
The reason for watching without sound is that most sports come complete with fans excitedly making noise and commentators acting like hype men at a rap concert! So, if you kill the noise, that’s one less stimulant for your brain and heart rate to rise from.
You could also make a smart choice by lowering the brightness on your TV to follow the mood-setting tip we discussed previously. It’s well worth setting a timer on your set so that you can rest easy if you do drift off, and the chances are that you will once the setting is there for you to do so… It’s ambient and it’s sleep inducing!
Know your temperatures
On a tennis court, it can get hot, which is something you will undoubtedly know all about. While you don’t want it to be too hot because you’ll be zapped in no time at all, you don’t want it to be super cold either, do you?
The same idea comes to the fore when it comes to sleeping at night. You don’t want your room being too warm or your core temperature won’t cool down enough. You need this to happen so that a signal is sent to the brain that it is time to rest and sleep.
The optimum temperature for sleep is 15C to 20C, so you can dial your thermostat in to keep on top of that, and let your mind do what you want it to and focus on getting you into the Land of Nod.
If you want some more help on the temperature of your room, Sleep.org has some great tips you can take on board too.
Get your breathing on your side
Looking for alternative methods to find success in your game can come in many forms, and breathing exercises are one of them.
You can try meditating, and this will enable your heart to lower in beats per minute; something that is vital for when you want to drift off to sleep. Simple meditation exercises for you to get started with are as follows:
- Take one deep breath in as you count to four
- Next, hold your breath for up to 10 seconds
- Then slowly release your breath while counting to six
- Finally, repeat this sequence several times as you relax
All of these pointers can help you to find sound sleep and also reach high energy levels when you need them; on the tennis court!
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