The Essential Role of Sleep in Recovery and Better Health

Sleep is an underappreciated element of health and well-being, which is why prioritizing restorative sleep is one of the ACE 7 Core Drivers of Healthy Living. Sleep is one of the most powerful recovery tools available to you and your clients, but also one of the most neglected.

This is why ACE is so proud to introduce the Sleep & Recovery Coach Course, which bridges the gap between sleep science and practical application. Our goal with this course is to empower health coaches and exercise professionals to help their clients implement personalized and evidence-based strategies to improve sleep quality, recovery and overall performance.

Nick Lambe, CCSH, CPT, LMT, known as the Online Sleep Coach, has coached individuals from all walks of life, including professional and Olympic athletes, and consulted with many teams and organizations. Here, Nick, who developed and leads this course, answers questions about why sleep is such a vital part of health, fitness and performance and offers some practical strategies you can share with clients.

What is one thing you wish people understood about the importance of sleep?

I wish more people understood that sleep is the linchpin to continued success in their health and fitness journey. It's the piece that ties everything together, as sleep influences every single physiological system. Sleep also provides the direct basis for what makes improvements in health, fitness and performance possible. When we provide the body with a positive stimulus or stressor, such as exercise, adaptation is necessary for the body to actually make improvements. This adaptation is not possible when someone is unable to recover from the cumulative load on their system. And this recovery is not possible without optimal and quality sleep.

In a more practical sense, I wish that more people understood the idea of improving their relationship with sleep, that so much of the struggle we face around sleep (especially long-term) is behavioral in nature and stems from the relationship we have with sleep—the perceptions and beliefs we have around sleep, the confidence in our sleep ability and the identity we hold around what "type of sleeper" we are. Improving your relationship with sleep is the foundation to sleep success in the short term, and certainly in the long term.

Why is it so difficult for people to adopt healthy sleep habits, even after they’ve learned of its impact on overall quality of life and well-being?

It's important to understand that sleep is unlike exercise and nutrition in a few ways. Notably, committing to sleep improvements doesn't involve willpower or motivation or even discipline. In fact, sleep success often comes down to the opposite—letting go and "surrendering" some of that will. We can't treat sleep like it's a performance or place too much pressure on the act itself or it drives a stress response that pulls us in the completely reverse direction.

This stress response and often a conditioned arousal response that people build around sleep, sleep time and sleep anticipation is part of why they struggle. While health coaches and exercise pros may have good intentions, oversharing research that demonstrates just how much sleep affects and influences actually does many clients a disservice. It creates more stress, anxiety and struggle for them, especially if they've been struggling for a while. This snowball of stress and anxiety becomes one of the most important, foundational things we recommend addressing with clients. A better approach to "buy in" is creating small wins night to night and highlighting the ways in which these improvements make clients feel and how they enhance how they show up in other areas of life.

How can health coaches and exercise pros integrate sleep science into their coaching practices? Do you have any tips to share?

While there are many layers to fully embracing sleep coaching into your practice as a health and fitness professional, the first step is committing to making it more of a part of your foundation because you know sleep will have a direct influence on every goal your clients are working toward. Also, make the commitment that you'll forever include it as part of your process, whatever that might look like. I've had countless conversations with coaches who agree that sleep is foundational, but whose "process" involves asking whether or not a client sleeps eight hours and simply stopping there (i.e., if they get eight hours, no more conversation is needed, and if they don't, the coach suggests making it a priority). Or, they might provide a list of sleep hygiene tips or recommendations that, while they might be beneficial tips, are not individualized to the client and where they're at—something we'd never do in the context of exercise or nutrition.

The most important integration is the willingness to ask more questions in order to understand the behavioral reasons why someone might be struggling with sleep on an individual level. The willingness to dig a bit more and to make sleep coaching more a part of what you know is valuable. Also, make sleep a more in-depth part of your screening and assessment. (There are many sleep disorders that we can help to screen for and refer out to the appropriate provider. It's important to distinguish between sleep disorders and disordered sleeping, the latter of which can be addressed through coaching and a behavioral approach.)

As a full and comprehensive integration, I'm proud of the Sleep & Recovery Coach Course, which is now an ACE partner course. The course provides the foundations of sleep coaching and a system to integrate it into what you do (either as an adjunct or stand-alone), from assessment to coaching to scope of practice to collaboration.

Please provide some practical steps our readers (and their clients) can take to improve their sleep habits. [Note: Be sure to share these strategies with clients who struggle with establishing good sleep habits.]

1. Take an honest look at your current relationship with sleep. This includes any negative perceptions and beliefs that you carry around your sleep/situation (things like "I'm just a poor sleeper," "I've always been a poor sleeper" or "I can't function if I don't sleep eight hours"). If there are rooted negative beliefs and expectations, they will always drive sleep issues, no matter how many sleep hygiene strategies you try.
2. Establish your bed, bedroom and bedtime as powerful triggers and associations for sleep and nothing else. Too often, these things are connected to being awake, worrying, struggling to sleep and more. Time spent in bed not actually sleeping can be problematic, so establish some rules for yourself, such as your physical bedroom around the time of sleep being used for sleep only (sleep and sex) and not going to bed unless you're sleepy and actually ready and primed for sleep (you wouldn't go sit at the dining room table and wait to be hungry). If you're unable to fall asleep consistently (or you wake up in the middle of the night unable to fall back asleep), physically get out of the bed and bedroom and come back once you are sleepy again.
3. Reduce the pressure and performance anxiety related to sleep. It's about letting go and allowing what should be more natural to take place. An extension of this is something called paradoxical intention, which involves getting into bed, fully ready to sleep, and only focusing on staying awake (a bit of reverse psychology that often can work).
4. Connect the above with simple hygiene strategies such as light dimming with a pre-sleep routine that you will actually do—one that is simple and repeatable.

Is there anything else about this topic that you’d like to share?

Sleep should never be viewed as a detriment or something that gets in the way of your life, goals or fitness. It's the body's beautifully designed and natural way to recover, reset and rebuild throughout every facet of our being. Make it a priority for yourself (and your clients) to build a more positive and healthy relationship with sleep, to allow it to occur more naturally. When we do this, we create a positive momentum that allows sleep to be the ultimate life enhancer (as well as the ultimate enhancer for every goal we're working toward with clients).

In your coaching practice, sleep can and should be a foundational piece of what you do.

If you’re interested in learning more from Nick about sleep as a tool for recovery and better health, consider taking the Sleep & Recovery Coach Course (worth 1.2 ACE CECs). This course will help you design and implement sleep and recovery plans that are truly individualized and integrate into clients’ existing training and lifestyle programs.