Chargers’ James Collins on the importance of sleep in players’ performance
By John Buhler
Los Angeles Chargers director of football/medical services James Collins discusses the importance of sleep in helping players perform at the highest level.
Advances in medical science over the several last decades have emphasized the importance of sleep in terms of professional athlete’s ability to recover quicker. Los Angeles Chargers director of football medical/services James Collins was happy to speak with FanSided‘s Mark Carman ahead of Super Bowl LIV down in Miami on behalf of Sleep Number to discuss all things sleep.
“I think as we have migrated through the last several decades, I think a lot of things have changed with players’ health and performance,” said Collins to Carman. “Performance is obviously, one of the most important things we want to get out of a player. So sleep has been added to that because recovery from say, lifting or practice or a game.”
Collins would touch on the importance of not just getting sleep, but getting good sleep. He would then define was exactly is deemed ‘good sleep’ for us. “I think good sleep is that the player has the right amount of say, pressure on the type of mattress he uses. Also, how much sleeps he’s getting, what his activities are before he goes to sleep. And again, the right amount of sleep is important.”
While science has told us somewhere between seven to nine hours of sleep is good for a normal person, for a professional athlete, eight hours is what they need to appropriately recover from the activities from the day before. It’s interesting because, in years past, athletes may have wanted to limit sleep due to the perception it might have of one being weak and not mentally tough.
Collins would add this is no longer the case. Athletes are buying into getting their eight hours more than ever. They are always looking for ways to get better and getting the right amount of good sleep is certainly one avenue for that. When you’re at your best physically, you can get the most out of your talent on the football field.
Teams like the Chargers can track and monitor sleep all they want, but it comes down to the athlete prioritizing getting eight hours of good sleep every night. Who knew that sleep was this good for us? Make sure to get your seven to nine hours every night so that you can be at your best.
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James Collins spoke with FanSided on behalf of Sleep Number.