Always tired? Five ways to a good night’s sleep from a sleep guru

The demands on professional footballers are greater than ever. And for schedules that can be physically punishing, “Sleep Guru” James Wilson has a simple solution: get better sleep.

“It’s your No. 1 recovery tool,” Wilson says. “You need food, water, air and sleep to live. So many football clubs are currently overlooking the importance of their players getting proper sleep.

“At all the clubs I have worked for, I have won something and that is because improved sleep leads to fewer injuries, faster recovery time and more intelligent decision-making. In turn, teams win things.”

Achieving a good night’s sleep and waking up refreshed doesn’t require expensive gadgets or prescribed medications.Credit:

Wilson worked as a sleep coach for Premier League West Ham United during their victorious 2022-23 Europa Conference League campaign and says you could see the benefits of his methods all over the pitch.

“Take Jarrod Bowen’s last-minute winner [against Fiorentina in the final] for example,” Wilson says. “It didn’t surprise me, having worked closely with him, that he managed to keep a clear head at that moment. He had become an excellent sleeper.

“Consistent quality sleep elevates your game because your brain works quicker as you are in a flow state, which in turn makes players braver, quicker and more alert.”

Wilson’s method centres on simplifying sleep and taking the stress out of it. He insists the reason so many people struggle to sleep is that the process has been overcomplicated by misinformation in the past 10 years.

As a result, many players have developed orthosomnia – an unhealthy fixation on achieving the ideal amount of sleep, which actually hinders rest. As Wilson says: “Good sleepers don’t think about sleep.”

Ever caught yourself desperate to fall asleep in the middle of the night before a big meeting or event? Here are five ways the “Sleep Guru” is helping players to elevate their game.

1. Ditch the sleeping pills

Now working alongside Frank Lampard at Coventry City, Wilson says he has come to the conclusion that players who use sleeping pills are injured more often because they do not get recovery sleep.

“Sleeping pills do not work,” Wilson says. “They’ll knock you out and give you sedation, but they won’t give you recovery sleep, which is what footballers need.

“Four hours of normal sleep is better for recovery than eight hours of sleep from a sleeping pill. But your brain doesn’t think like this – you’d rather have eight hours of sedation – so our process is all about educating the players.”

2. Invest in quality bedding

One of the main pillars to a good night’s sleep is quality bedding.

Wilson says: “A mattress, pillow and duvet are the three most important products a footballer owns.”

Comfortable and supportive bedding is so significant for sleep that Wilson once sent mattress toppers and pillows to Denmark for West Ham’s away game against Viborg in the Conference League.

“The players had complained that they had found the hotel difficult to sleep in the previous year. Some of it was psychosomatic – we wanted them to feel like we were taking their concerns seriously.”

3. Stop sleeping on your front

Wilson says sleeping on their stomachs is a key factor in players picking up injuries. He says while you may be able to avoid injuring your body sleeping this way at the age of 22, over time it will catch up with you.

“Sleeping on your front causes all sorts of problems. It can damage your neck, shoulders, knees and hamstrings.

“I’ve worked with players who have had consistent niggly injuries in these areas, and simply working on their sleep posture by moving them to side-on and adjusting their neck’s position completely solved the issue.”

4. Create a relaxing environment

You need physical and emotional security for optimal sleep, says Wilson. While he recommends a shower before bed to drop your core temperature for the physical side, he has other methods for achieving emotional security.

“Your body is programmed to wake up in the night,” he says. “You need to feel safe to stop this, so we ask players to take their partner’s aftershave or perfume with them and spray it before bed because smell makes you feel emotionally secure. It really works!

“Also, it is important to have some audio on, as your hearing is like your alarm system and it stays awake to protect you whilst you sleep. Intense topics like true-crime podcasts do not work, but any fairly monotonous podcast you enjoy does the trick.”

Avoiding visual stimulants before bed is also crucial. Wilson says he has previously advised teams to stop watching evening kick-offs the night before a game as it was keeping the players mentally engaged.

5. Throw away your sleep tracker and ask yourself these three questions

The Football Association kitted England with sleep-tracking wearables at last summer’s Euros – even Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo was pictured wearing an Oura ring. But Wilson says the products are incredibly unreliable.

“Sleep wearables are having a negative impact on football at the minute,” he says. “They are very inaccurate and consequently cause the players to worry about their sleep, which only makes it worse.”

Trackers use heart rate and temperature to provide data, but as athletes usually have lower heart rates and higher body temperatures, it often skews the figures. Instead, he asks his players three questions to gauge their overall quality of sleep.

“Firstly, ‘how quickly did you get to sleep?’ We want that to be between five and 30 minutes. Any shorter and you’re sleep-deprived.

“Secondly, ‘how many times did you wake up in the night?’ The lower, the better, but anything more than three times and you’ve had poor sleep.

“Then finally, ‘how did you feel at 10am this morning?’ As that is when you should be most alert.”

The Telegraph, London

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