Sleep is the single most important (and free) thing you can do to optimise your recovery, maximise your health and perform at your best every single day, but do you get enough?

When we’re sleep-deprived, the lack of sleep induced mental fatigue impacts decision-making, motor skills, power output, reactions, endurance and more. This means you’re likely to make more mistakes, slow down, increase your risk to injuries and sickness, take longer to recover and more.

The smart pro athletes know that sleep enables the body to absorb their training, fully recover and have the pushing their bodies to the limit again the very next day. So let’s take a look at how some pro athletes prioritise sleep:

Mirinda Carfrae,

Australian professional triathlete and Ironman Triathlon World Champion

60% of the time she’s in by 10pm - the latest she’ll go to sleep is 11/11:30pm
Knows sleep is the most important thing for recovery and gets between 9-11 hours a night
If Miranda sleeps for 7-8 hours at night, she’ll take a 2-hour nap during the day

Connect with Mirinda on Instagram (@mirindacarfrae).

LeBron James,

American Professional Basketball Player

Aims for between 8-10 hours a night
Ensures his bedroom is extremely comfortable, for LeBron this means setting the temperature to between 68-70 degrees and having total darkness
Turns all electronics off (TV, phone etc.) 30-45 minutes before going to sleep
Uses Calm app sleep feature so he can fall asleep to ‘rain on leaves’

Connect with LeBron (@kingjames).

Eliud Kipchoge,

Kenyan Long-Distance Runner and Marathon World Record Holder

Always goes to bed at 9pm
Prioritises 8 hours of sleep a day

Connect with Eliud (@kipchogeeliud).

Usain Bolt,

Jamaican Former Sprinter, World Record Holder in the 100 Metres, 200 Metres and 4 × 100 Metres Relay

Sleep is extremely important to him and ensures he gets 8-10 hours a night - no matter what time he goes to bed

Connect with Usain (@usainbolt).

Roger Federer,

Swiss Professional Tennis Player, Ranked World No. 3 in Men's Singles Tennis

Sleep is also a priority for Federer and he gets about 10 hours at night and a 2-hour sleep during the day

Connect with Federer (@rogerfederer).

How You Can Apply These Habits

You’re likely not following a gruelling training programme like the pro athletes, that also includes crossing multiple time zones, sleeping in different hotels and spending hours travelling, but it is important to ask yourself: Am I getting enough sleep?

If the answer is no, think about what you can do to get more sleep in?

Or perhaps you have trouble falling asleep?

Or maybe you wake up during the night and find it difficult to get back to sleep?

So what can you change to get to sleep quicker and experience deeper, more restful sleep?