The US Open

 We're approaching finals weekend at the US Open and it's crunch time. How can a Federer, a Williams, or a Nadal get an edge over the competition? Well, more talent and more skill help... but we're here to talk about sleep.

Training & Sleep

Research shows that getting more sleep can lead to better performance. Cheri Mah et al, working out of Stanford University, have even shown that extending sleep in collegiate tennis athletes will lead to specific improvements in their game.

Athletes were measured on their normal routine and were then asked to extend sleep to 10 hours per night (and unlike most of us - college tennis players have no problems sleeping this long!).  The results were striking:

• Better hitting accuracy, including more valid serves
• Faster sprint times
• Better hitting depth drill performance
• More vigor, less fatigue

The improvement in serve accuracy was striking - a 23% improvement in hitting accuracy - that could easily provide the extra juice for a US Open win.

The Ace

The moral: get enough sleep - get an edge. But there's more to it than that. These results are not specific to tennis. Mah's group has shown such improvements in

• football
• swimming
• basketball

For those of us who aren't pro athletes, it's pretty clear that even the Average Joe would be better off with more sleep.

Now, if only it were that easy...

Steve (ZQ: 100) is our resident Research Scientist, working to help people understand the science behind Zeo, as well as the science of sleep. He is one of the driving forces behind our Sleep Research Center.