00:00:00
want to sleep like an elite athlete I
00:00:02
know I used to want to they push their
00:00:04
recovery to the max in the name of high
00:00:06
energy mental toughness and domination
00:00:16
but many of their sleep methods are
00:00:19
interesting so Roger Federer claims to
00:00:22
sleep around about 12 hours Usain Bolt a
00:00:25
famous Sprinter slept somewhere between
00:00:27
nine and a half to ten hours a night
00:00:29
then of course we've also got reports of
00:00:31
Ronaldo sleeping five times a day sleep
00:00:34
is probably the greatest legal
00:00:36
performance enhancing drug that few
00:00:37
athletes are abusing enough but claims
00:00:39
and methods seem shrouded in dishonesty
00:00:41
by poor journalistic communication and
00:00:44
financial incentives it's not helping
00:00:46
with what's been dubbed a sleep loss
00:00:48
epidemic and it is fast becoming one of
00:00:50
the greatest public health challenges
00:00:52
that we face in the 21st century what
00:00:55
really goes into the secretive recovery
00:00:57
routines of elite athletes I went to the
00:00:59
man who showed Ronaldo how to sleep with
00:01:02
some of the most elite clientele for
00:01:04
answers because the advice of sin has
00:01:07
always seemed over the top and dare I
00:01:09
say a very suspect if sleep weren't a
00:01:12
normal thing it would be a banned
00:01:13
substance it is the most powerful thing
00:01:17
that everyone has in the toolbox and so
00:01:19
few people use this is what woman Will's
00:01:22
strongest man 2017 this was the game
00:01:24
changer what are we actually witnessing
00:01:26
here and is there actually any truth in
00:01:28
this sleep is the ultimate luxury it's
00:01:32
time to find out what is really going on
00:01:34
here
00:01:37
lately I've been extremely low on energy
00:01:39
my solution is to reach for the caffeine
00:01:41
which results in more tiredness a
00:01:43
vicious cycle that repeats over and over
00:01:45
the reality is this is a norm for most
00:01:47
people and this cycle is encouraged by
00:01:50
drug companies social media and the
00:01:52
entertainment industry with Netflix CEO
00:01:54
stating sleep as their biggest
00:01:56
competitor this is not in your best
00:01:58
interest the shorter your sleep the
00:02:00
shorter your life but when you look to
00:02:03
the people at the top it seems
00:02:05
incredibly secretive and unconventional
00:02:08
you hear of Michael Phelps sleeping in
00:02:09
an altitude chamber Djokovic bringing
00:02:11
his own hyperbaric chamber to the US
00:02:13
Open I mean just look at some of these
00:02:14
sleep facilities the more you look into
00:02:16
it the more bizarre things get
00:02:20
there's wristbands that monitor motion
00:02:22
will show when and how often his
00:02:24
athlete's sleep is being interrupted
00:02:28
where it's to recover the bodies to
00:02:30
sleeping well so sleep even after months
00:02:33
of research I still couldn't make sense
00:02:35
of it all until I came across this man
00:02:38
so after promising an unbiased video on
00:02:41
the topic to those inside my body
00:02:42
transformation Workshop it was time to
00:02:44
get to work over the next 30 days I'll
00:02:46
be attempting to sleep like an elite
00:02:48
athlete as Guided by the Sleep coach
00:02:50
used by Guardiola Ferguson Wenger and
00:02:53
countless others providing you of an
00:02:55
actionable plan at the end now you're
00:02:57
watching this on YouTube because I
00:02:59
believe this is extremely important for
00:03:01
everyone to see I have two blood tests
00:03:03
for the first I took a month off all
00:03:05
supplements only consuming my regular
00:03:07
diet the second test will be after 30
00:03:10
days on all of these supplements while
00:03:12
applying the advice all track changes to
00:03:14
cortisol testosterone magnesium and many
00:03:16
more biomarkers which can help with
00:03:18
sleep now before we go for a day in the
00:03:20
life we need to cover the fundamentals
00:03:23
okay so why was Ronaldo sleeping for 90
00:03:26
minutes five times a day you see little
00:03:29
Hills athletes view sleep differently
00:03:31
they view it in Cycles instead of time
00:03:33
there's different crucial stages in
00:03:35
sleep but time to go through each of
00:03:37
these is around 90 minutes wake up in
00:03:39
the middle of a sleep cycle and you'll
00:03:40
probably feel groggy if you start
00:03:42
thinking Cycles rather than I've got to
00:03:44
get my eight hours then five 90 minute
00:03:46
Cycles is 7.5 hours there's that sort of
00:03:49
optimum 30 15 minutes in 15 minutes out
00:03:53
gives you that sort of area of hate this
00:03:56
is what Ronaldo seems to be doing just
00:03:58
in a weird way to fit his routine but
00:04:00
this doesn't explain the bizarre amount
00:04:02
of sleep the athletes reportedly get
00:04:04
we've got Roger Federer LeBron James and
00:04:06
Michelle Wie claiming around 12 hours a
00:04:08
day why does it seem like Elite athletes
00:04:10
sleep for so long they might be
00:04:12
allocating that amount of time to sleep
00:04:14
but whether actually sleeping during
00:04:16
that time is a completely different
00:04:18
matter I don't come across any athletes
00:04:21
in in my world and by default other
00:04:24
Associated athletes like you've
00:04:25
mentioned where that's probably just a
00:04:27
thing that's that's put into their
00:04:28
Marketplace saying well I allocate this
00:04:31
amount of time to it but whether they do
00:04:32
it or not is another matter so it makes
00:04:34
much more sense to take a report to a
00:04:36
pinch of salt look at sleep cycles per
00:04:38
week when you choose to fit these in
00:04:40
it's going to be down to your own
00:04:41
lifestyle and this helps take the
00:04:43
pressure off a bad night's sleep the
00:04:44
strategies you're about to hear come
00:04:46
down to priming your body and
00:04:47
environment to achieve this
00:04:51
you can't manage what you cannot measure
00:04:53
as the saying wearable tech claims to
00:04:55
provide impressive insight into sleep
00:04:56
metrics in fact in 2020 the NBA
00:04:59
purchased 2 000 aura rings for players
00:05:01
to wear as they can help determine when
00:05:03
an athlete is about to be ill before
00:05:04
symptoms this is one of the reasons I've
00:05:06
wanted one for so long they genuinely
00:05:08
look useful for now though I'm going to
00:05:10
be using a basic sleep diary obviously
00:05:12
it's not as high tech but I'll give you
00:05:14
access to this at the end of the video
00:05:16
just make sure to not be too obsessive
00:05:18
there's already a medical term called
00:05:20
orthosomnia for the increased anxiety
00:05:23
and stress that's created by oh dear my
00:05:26
sleep went down my Sleep Quality went
00:05:28
down my deep sleep went down and what
00:05:30
does that mean for my day or the rest of
00:05:32
the week this is why Elite athletes
00:05:33
focus on the factors which influence
00:05:35
sleep and this starts as soon as you
00:05:37
wake up
00:05:39
blue light is the first factor which is
00:05:41
important for setting your circadian
00:05:43
rhythm to optimize your energy levels
00:05:44
throughout the day it's not about just
00:05:46
getting outside you know it's it's not
00:05:49
about just getting a nice fresh air and
00:05:50
going for a walk there's a hell of a lot
00:05:52
going on here and the way you get that
00:05:54
really nice balance wow it's why
00:05:56
athletes prioritize getting morning
00:05:58
sunlight and Nick likes to install
00:05:59
daylight lamps to promote wakefulness
00:06:01
because when your body sends a sunlight
00:06:03
it shuts off the Melatonin production so
00:06:05
you when you wake up you're not groggy
00:06:07
you literally just wake up yeah like oh
00:06:09
the day has started now this sounds very
00:06:11
liver king-esque but it is actually
00:06:13
something to take seriously light
00:06:15
viewing early in the day is the most
00:06:18
powerful stimulus for wakefulness
00:06:19
throughout the day and it has a powerful
00:06:22
positive impact on your ability to fall
00:06:24
and stay asleep at night of course light
00:06:26
isn't the only energy boosting factor
00:06:28
with the record-breaking Liverpool 2020
00:06:30
Squad and many others reportedly make a
00:06:32
dosing caffeine before games is caffeine
00:06:34
abuse common in elite football common
00:06:37
Josh there has been in a growing
00:06:40
addictive behavior to a number of
00:06:43
factors those are all the little things
00:06:46
that you can access without prescription
00:06:47
you mentioned them caffeine sleeping
00:06:49
tablets melatonin supplements CBDs the
00:06:52
list is ends this darker side is
00:06:55
something you might have suspected and
00:06:56
you think of a pyramid or you think of
00:06:58
the iceberg
00:06:59
above the sea line you can you can see
00:07:02
that there's been a an increase in these
00:07:05
things being used for all sorts of
00:07:07
reasons when you look below
00:07:10
it's much greater
00:07:12
and he's growing much faster you just
00:07:14
can't it's not being revealed as much
00:07:17
worse substance is a secret behind Elite
00:07:19
athletes exceptional energy levels
00:07:21
because I wasn't convinced it was
00:07:23
sunlight
00:07:25
interestingly Federer's 12 hours of
00:07:27
sleep doesn't come in one block with two
00:07:29
hours of his time dedicated to getting a
00:07:31
90-minute sleep cycle in the day you see
00:07:34
we have a natural lull in energy around
00:07:35
2PM which is why Nick recommends a short
00:07:37
recovery period here just do something
00:07:40
even go for a walk sit outside
00:07:43
play a few more chords on your guitar
00:07:45
because you never get time to do it you
00:07:47
know and don't think of it as a waste of
00:07:50
time it's a it's a 30 minute slot it
00:07:53
used to be called a nap it's actually a
00:07:56
polyphasic performance recovery tool
00:07:58
it'll make you more productive you'll
00:08:00
get more out of your day you'll stop
00:08:02
wasting valuable time sleeping without
00:08:04
benefits because your motivation your
00:08:06
mood and all of this sort of stuff is in
00:08:08
a much more harmonious place so why is
00:08:11
it the most important 30 minutes of your
00:08:13
day I've just mentioned enough and
00:08:15
there's even more something you might
00:08:17
want to consider in this slot is a
00:08:19
caffeine nap if you're doing it every
00:08:21
day then you can do caffeine bang if you
00:08:24
fall into a micro sleep at your desk or
00:08:26
even with your headphones on where
00:08:27
you're sat right now then the caffeine
00:08:29
will just slightly kick in as you're
00:08:31
coming out of that 30 minute period and
00:08:34
then you can use things like light but
00:08:36
the more you do it whether you sleep or
00:08:38
not the less you need those things but
00:08:41
this will seem fairly Sim pool and my
00:08:44
goal here is to maximize my sleep so
00:08:47
where are these more Advanced Techniques
00:08:50
around one to two hours before we sleep
00:08:52
we want to start feeling tired so you
00:08:55
very much think about moving from bright
00:08:58
blue energy lights to diminish light
00:09:00
like candle yellow that sort of thing
00:09:03
this is why Harlan wears blue light
00:09:04
blockers before bed knocking on looking
00:09:06
like an Elton John tribute then consider
00:09:08
bulbs where you can remove the blue
00:09:09
light from just be careful not to
00:09:12
accidentally create your local Red Light
00:09:13
District now of course there's many
00:09:15
supplements which can seem extremely
00:09:17
beneficial for Sleep the one that seems
00:09:21
to be in my world is magnesium and
00:09:24
potassium you put them together and they
00:09:26
become quite powerful of course these in
00:09:29
supplement form aren't essential
00:09:31
supplements can can help with that
00:09:33
process but you can get all those little
00:09:35
things that you need from a nice healthy
00:09:37
balanced semi-plant-based five a day
00:09:40
type of approach a lot of footballers
00:09:42
seem to use supplements to help them
00:09:44
sleep after late kickoffs oh yeah I'm
00:09:46
going home celebrate with the family and
00:09:48
have a chamomile tea and sleep
00:09:51
this is one of the things I took even
00:09:53
though I am more skeptical when it comes
00:09:55
to supplements I took a fair few to test
00:09:58
against a healthy diet what would you
00:10:00
say to people who are using like alcohol
00:10:02
and drugs to help them sleep
00:10:05
good luck
00:10:07
a lot of products including sleeping
00:10:10
tablets are available online without
00:10:12
prescription they just arrive in a brown
00:10:14
box at your door and if it's called a
00:10:17
sleeping tablet maybe that's what it's
00:10:19
for to help you sleep just like a
00:10:21
painkiller but it isn't it's a highly
00:10:24
active drug that's only used to sedate
00:10:27
and reset and should only be used for a
00:10:29
very short period of time under specific
00:10:32
clinical reasons I do have a fair few
00:10:35
called Sleep Products now but I still
00:10:37
thought there was more out there was it
00:10:39
the Sleep environment
00:10:41
[Music]
00:10:42
Federer made headlines when he rented
00:10:44
out two houses during a competition one
00:10:47
for him the Opera for his family so his
00:10:49
sleep environment was as optimal as
00:10:50
possible before home games Man City
00:10:52
players sleep at their state-of-the-art
00:10:54
200 million recovery facilities then we
00:10:57
also have hyperbaric chambers backed by
00:11:00
some fairly convincing evidence this is
00:11:02
what won me World's Strongest Man 2017
00:11:05
this was the game changer this was my
00:11:07
perception of elite athlete recovery
00:11:09
secrecy extortionate individualized
00:11:12
approaches and questionable product
00:11:13
placement it can be difficult to make
00:11:15
sense of it all but if you learn one
00:11:18
thing from my mistakes let it be to
00:11:20
focus on things in order of importance I
00:11:22
strongly believe most people should
00:11:23
invest more into Wellness but marketers
00:11:25
like to inflate the importance of their
00:11:27
products sure they might help but good
00:11:29
sleep isn't something exclusive to the
00:11:32
elite sleep unfortunately is not an
00:11:35
optional lifestyle luxury
00:11:38
the way we achieve high-level optimized
00:11:41
recovery is because we've gone down that
00:11:43
journey and we can sleep anywhere
00:11:44
Anytime Anyplace up the side of a
00:11:47
mountain hanging off a cliff
00:11:48
what a lot of this comes down to is
00:11:50
being in tune with our natural processes
00:11:53
and it's not about fancy products it is
00:11:55
really your if you can bring into your
00:11:59
room in any way through colors
00:12:01
visualization sensory anything you can
00:12:05
do to make that feel a little bit more
00:12:08
natural orientating then what you do is
00:12:11
you're able to adapt any environment to
00:12:15
suit what you and your brain need to
00:12:17
optimize your recovery and you take the
00:12:19
emphasis away from
00:12:21
but so too dare I save marketing
00:12:25
that comes with a lot of
00:12:28
products this stuff doesn't need to be
00:12:30
expensive in fact when coaching the
00:12:32
wildly successful UK cycling team of the
00:12:35
Tour de France Nick achieved Black Op
00:12:36
Lines by taping bin bags to the windows
00:12:39
I'm not suggesting you do this your
00:12:41
neighbors will probably think you're a
00:12:42
serial killer but what I was hearing was
00:12:44
drastically different to the headlines
00:12:46
and advertisements
00:12:48
the media likes the short queue of just
00:12:50
how important sleep is I'm not going to
00:12:52
argue with that but if you think back to
00:12:55
when you slept the best it was probably
00:12:57
when you're a kid now things have
00:12:59
changed when it's a highly
00:13:00
individualized one percent gains which
00:13:02
get presented to you as the secret
00:13:03
behind athletes careers with marketers
00:13:05
convincing you you need sleeping pills
00:13:07
to sleep sleep gets sensationalized and
00:13:09
people start to overlook the basics
00:13:11
athletes traveled to far away places
00:13:13
with many sleep challenges they aren't
00:13:15
all sleeping 12 hours a night hooked to
00:13:17
machines with magical contraptions
00:13:20
[Music]
00:13:22
sleeping like an elite athlete is about
00:13:24
being flexible with your sleep what's
00:13:26
your secret because you're showing no
00:13:28
signs of slowing down Christmas Secrets
00:13:30
don't exist Secrets pioneering Tech and
00:13:32
supplements are great in the right
00:13:34
situation I've always loved this stuff
00:13:36
maybe a bit too much but the second you
00:13:38
become dependent on a ring Tech or
00:13:40
Endocrinology to sleep you've already
00:13:42
lost we have a lot of knowledge and a
00:13:45
lot of research we have the ability to
00:13:47
do so many more things and it'll keep
00:13:48
coming
00:13:49
but there's always that sort of thing
00:13:52
that it's still a human being and so you
00:13:55
do have to step back a little bit and
00:13:58
just go let me just remind myself I am
00:14:01
Josh this is what makes me tick fueling
00:14:04
up hydration recovery that's what makes
00:14:07
me tick and the more I'm in line with
00:14:09
that the better I'm going to be to deal
00:14:10
with everything else that's coming along
00:14:12
and sometimes it is nothing more than
00:14:14
just stepping back and reminding those
00:14:16
things before you go off doing anything
00:14:18
else okay so here's my results before
00:14:20
the Sleep Experiment all biomarkers were
00:14:23
good yes some of the metrics were
00:14:24
improved further with supplements may be
00:14:27
providing a small benefit but nutrient
00:14:29
dense diet was sufficient my energy
00:14:31
levels are now more stable and I'm less
00:14:33
dependent on caffeine but if I've
00:14:35
learned anything from the months of
00:14:36
research individuality consistency
00:14:39
resilience that is how you sleep like an
00:14:42
elite athlete master the basics and
00:14:44
maybe just maybe you don't need that
00:14:47
fancy product
00:14:49
[Music]
00:14:55
thank you
