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In this article, we’re going to explore how a boxer can optimise their sleep, to improve recovery and ultimately performance in the ring.

Quick Facts

Quality and quantity of sleep are extremely important for a boxer’s recovery from training.

A good night’s sleep starts way before bedtime.

A few simple strategies can be applied to improve a boxer’s sleep straight away.

Why is sleep so important for boxers?

Boxers have several components of training and recovery to consider – sparring, running, strength, nutrition etc, but they often overlook the things that are easy to get right!

We often show athletes this ‘recovery matrix.’ Often, they find themselves fatigued from training, and look to things like sports massage and ice therapy.

One of the main factors that often gets overlooked is sleep, even though the largest portion of our recovery takes place when we aren’t awake! With a poor nights sleep, everything higher up the matrix will lose its effectiveness.

Why do you need sleep?

Dr Shona Halson –  head of ‘performance recovery’ at the Australian Institute of Sport (and an expert in sleep), has written extensively on this topic. 

Dr Halson has discussed that if you get less than 6 hours sleep for 4 nights or more it can:

  • Reduce your brain power
  • Make you moody
  • Impair how your body uses carbohydrates
  • Reduce your appetite
  • Impair your immune function, increasing the risk of illness 

What about performance?

Impaired sleep can reduce strength, speed and fitness. Not only this, alertness, decision making, and reactions can all be reduced with poor sleep.

A good nights sleep can often be difficult for an athlete to achieve. This is often due to –

  • Extended day-time napping – especially naps in the afternoon
  • Consuming caffeine later in the afternoon – for example, a large amount before the second training session of the day
  • Completing a very hard training session that finished 90 minutes before bed
  • Using electronics and social media/interaction less than 1 hour before bed.

From knowledge of this, we can put some simple solutions in place to make sure our athletes have a better night’s sleep, on a consistent basis.

Simple Steps to a Better Nights Sleep

Food and hydration

You can help how quickly you go to sleep by eating foods that will increase your ‘sleepy hormones’.

These include:

  • Starchy carbohydrates
  • Milk
  • Meat 
  • Fish
  • Poultry 
  • Eggs
  • Cheese
  • Leafy green vegetables

It’s important to make sure you eat these foods at least 2 hours before bed. You don’t want these foods to be digesting or raising blood glucose whilst you’re trying to fall asleep.

Make sure to avoid drinking too much fluid before bed. If you drink too much before bed, you’ll want to get up in the night. In turn, that’s going to disturb your sleep. 

Your bedroom

When you’re ready for bed, your room should be dark. At this point, bright lights aren’t your friend. In the summer, when it’s light in the evening, make sure your curtains block out the dusk-light.

Keep it cool

When you’re ready to sleep, your body temperature is already dropping (it goes up and down throughout the day). Having your room too hot will prevent your body temperature naturally falling before sleep, and will impair your sleep.

Before bed, having a bath that’s too hot will increase your body temperature, when it should be decreasing.

If you’re going to have a bath after a latenight training session, avoid making it too hot, and avoid spending too long in it. Make sure you can cool down quickly afterwards; it might be important for getting to sleep fast.

Keep it quiet

Aim to keep your room quiet and calm. Some athletes use earplugs to reduce the effect of background noise. 

Keep it comfortable

If your bed/mattress isn’t comfortable, think about how you can make it so. A quality mattress, or at least mattress topper, is very important for the recovering athlete.

Keep it regular

Where possible, an athlete should aim to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. A consistent bedtime routine helps to keep the body’s natural rhythms in check.

Summary 

Despite its importance, a great night’s sleep is often neglected by boxers.

We’ve learned the common mistakes that many boxers perform which can prevent a good night’s sleep.

A great night’s sleep starts way before bedtime. Simple strategies can be put in place to increase the chances of a good night’s sleep.

To learn more about how a good night’s sleep can contribute to a boxers recovery, check out this Boxing Science TV episode, where Danny Wilson discusses the key problems and strategies behind recovery methods for boxing.

You can learn even more about how to optimise training and lifestyle habits for Boxing with our BRAND NEW membership service, featuring talks from the worlds leading experts in sport science for Boxing. Click here to learn more about becoming a Boxing Science member.