Top Tips to Improve Your Sleep Quality and Boost Recovery

Quality sleep is one of the most powerful recovery tools available to athletes. For masters swimmers balancing training, work, family and life commitments, good sleep habits can make a huge difference to performance, consistency, and injury prevention.

Below are some simple, evidence-based tips to help you improve your sleep and maximise your recovery.

Why Sleep Matters for Masters Swimmers

• Supports muscle repair and growth after training

• Improves energy levels and motivation

• Enhances concentration, reaction time, and technique

• Helps regulate hormones and immune function

Consistently poor sleep can increase fatigue, slow recovery, and raise injury risk.

Key Sleep Facts

• Aim for 7–9 hours of sleep per night

• Best bedroom temperature: 17–20°C

• A full sleep cycle lasts around 90 minutes

• Waking at the end of a cycle helps you feel more refreshed

• Keep your room dark, quiet, and cool

• Remove or limit light from phones, tablets, and TVs

Also ensure bedding and sleepwear don’t make you overheat.

Nutrition Tips for Better Sleep

• Include adequate protein across the day to support muscle recovery

• Foods containing tryptophan may help sleep quality:

  • Milk, yoghurt

  • Eggs

  • Turkey

  • Pumpkin and sesame seeds

• Avoid high-fat, heavy meals close to bedtime

• Limit caffeine after 3pm (coffee, tea, energy drinks, cola, pre-workout)

• Ensure good intake of key micronutrients such as iron, magnesium and zinc

• Extreme calorie restriction can negatively affect sleep

A small evening snack combining carbohydrate and protein (e.g. yoghurt and fruit) may help.

Smart Napping for Busy Athletes

Naps can be useful when training early mornings or after poor sleep.

• Best time: roughly mid-afternoon

• Aim for 15–30 minutes

• Lie down, close your eyes, and breathe deeply

• Don’t stress if you don’t fall asleep – mental rest still helps

• You should feel alert within 15–30 minutes after waking

For heavy training days, an occasional longer nap (60–90 minutes) can be helpful.

Simple Evening Habits That Help

• Create a wind-down routine (stretching, reading, shower)

• Avoid screens for 30–60 minutes before bed

• Keep sleep and wake times consistent, even on weekends

• Write down tomorrow’s to-do list to reduce racing thoughts

• Keep the bedroom for sleep, not work

Take-Home Message

You don’t need perfect sleep – but small improvements add up.
Better sleep = better recovery = better training quality.

If you’d like help improving your recovery habits or managing training load, speak to your S&C coach.