Key Takeaways:
• Simple life habits such as getting enough sleep can have a huge impact on overall wellness and aid in athletic performance.
• Christie emphasizes that all recovery methods point us towards a state of reduced stress, creating the conditions for optimal adaptation with minimal effort or strain on our bodies.
• Sleep procrastination is an issue; although some people think they're fine with five hours sleep per night (or catching up over weekends), this leads to social jet lag without fully addressing their deficits from lack of restorative rest time
• She speaks about how we are actively making a choice to deprive ourselves of sleep! We choose to stay up watching YouTube videos or social media feeds instead of listening to our bodies and going to bed.
• Christie explains how intentionally seeking a state of reduced stress gives your body and mind the chance to recuperate.
Show Notes
Dr. Erik Korem is joined by Christie Aschwanden, the author of Good To Go and former lead science writer at 538, to discuss recovery trends in elite athletics and recreational sports. Christie is an expert on the topic of sleep deprivation and how it affects our physical and mental health.
Key Quotes
“You know, stress reduction is one of the best things you can do for your recovery.”
“What I found in my research is that the most effective recovery tools, they aren't these novel products that you buy or gadgets to use. They're really life habits.”
“With Sleep Deprivation, reaction times, clear thinking, all of this is gone. But what's happened is that has become so much the new normal for you, that you’ve forgotten what it feels like to actually be rested.”
“You need to have periods of replenishment too. So often we have the mindset of wanting to do as much as we can, but it’s backwards thinking."
