How sprinter Gabby Thomas and other Olympic athletes improve their sleep

Ask Olympians what keeps them awake at night and many, without irony, will say sleep problems. In fact, sleep issues topped the list when U.S. Olympic team psychologists checked in with every Olympian about their mental health concerns earlier this year.

“As you mature as an athlete, you realize just how important sleep is,” said sprinter Gabby Thomas. “Not just to be an elite athlete, but just to be a functional human.”

A silver and bronze medalist at the Tokyo Games and heavily favored to medal again in the 200 meters in Paris, she studied sleep as a neurobiology undergraduate at Harvard University and then for her master’s degree from the University of Texas.

Now, she said, “I will never go under eight hours a night.”

Sleep is essential for athletes because during slumber the body consolidates new skills and starts repairing worn tissues, said Geoff Burns, a sport physiologist with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

“Sleep is the single most important thing you can do to get better at your sport,” he said.

But many Olympians - like the rest of us - face daunting obstacles to good sleep, including jet lag, smartphones, blue light, alcohol, mistimed naps and anxiety, Burns said.

So Team USA’s advisers have come up with recommendations to help athletes cope with their sleep issues, especially those related to international travel and competition. The same advice should help the rest of us achieve gold medal slumber.

1. Practice ‘sleep shifting’

“Our bodies can adjust by about an hour a day,” Burns said, whether we’re Olympians or not. So we need about a day to adjust for each time zone we cross, especially when traveling east, which is more difficult than heading west.

One way to trim that time is with “sleep shifting” in the days before you leave, Burns said, which means moving your bedtime and meals forward or back, to better match your arrival time zone.

2. Bank sleep before a big event

But family, work and social obligations make sleep shifting challenging, so it’s probably easiest to “bank some sleep” in advance of traveling, said Emily Clark, a psychologist for the Olympic Committee who specializes in sleep issues. Take an extra nap or go to bed 20 minutes earlier for a week or so before leaving, to top up your sleep reserves.

3. Schedule your ‘worry’ time

Persistent worriers might also want to start carving out “designated worry time,” Clark said, to lessen whatever anxieties bedevil their sleep. Write your worries on the left side of a notebook, she tells athletes, and the solutions on the right. “It could be anything, like, ‘I’m worried I’ll forget my suit,’” Clark said, “and on the right it’s, ‘I’m going to pack my gear the night before.’” Knowing you have a plan can stave off 3 a.m. fretting.

4. Block blue light

Then, before heading to the airport, invest in blue-light-blocking glasses, “one of the most powerful things you can use for travel,” Burns said. Blue-spectrum light, emitted from tablets, phone screens and LED bulbs, inhibits the body’s release of melatonin, the hormone that initiates sleepiness. Scrolling on your phone in an airport lit with LED bulbs marinates your eyeballs and brain in blue light, increasing wakefulness.

“We recommend that athletes get blue-light-blocking glasses and wear them whenever they travel,” Burns said.

5. Soak in sunlight

The most critical time for sleep repair, though, is after you’ve landed. If it’s daytime, get outside as soon as possible, Burns said. The key to resetting your internal clock is “the sun,” he said. Every cell in your body tunes itself, chronologically, to sunlight.

If it’s dark when you land, go to bed, even if you’re not tired, Clark said, and stay there, without getting up to wander around or doom scroll, until morning in your new time zone. Then throw open the blinds and soak in the light. (Athletes have reported sleeping fine on the cardboard bed frames at the Olympic Village in Paris.)

6. Take a morning walk

Even better, go for a 10-minute outdoor walk as soon as you wake up, Burns said. Gentle exercise amplifies the benefits of the ambient light. Eat breakfast immediately afterward. “Do all of that every day for a week and you’ve checked a lot of boxes” on your way to adjusting to your new locale, Burns said.

7. Avoid late caffeine, naps and alcohol

Other advice from the sleep experts to Olympians: No caffeine after 2 p.m., no naps after 3 p.m., and no alcohol after dinner. Teetotaling is even better. “Alcohol fragments sleep,” Clark said.

8. Keep a sleep diary

Both Clark and Burns are skeptical of wearable sleep trackers, such as watches or rings. Clark prefers athletes keep written sleep diaries to better identify patterns in their sleep, while Burns worries trackers sometimes promote orthosomnia, a condition in which you keep yourself awake at night worrying about how badly you’re sleeping.

9. Skip melatonin

Melatonin supplements, a popular sleep aid, “are not a first-line tool” for traveling Olympians, Burns said, although some athletes take them.

10. Keep bedrooms cool

Cool bedrooms, on the other hand, are indispensable, he said, since low core body temperatures are a hallmark of deep sleep. To keep athletes cool, the U.S. Olympic Committee sent air conditioners to Paris after learning the Olympic Village wouldn’t contain any.

11. Take a warm shower before bedtime

Paradoxically, cold showers right before bed are counterproductive, Burns said. The chilly water lowers your skin temperature, signaling to your brain that you’re cold, which may keep your core temperature too high to sleep well. Instead, stand under a spray of warm water within an hour of sleeping, Burns said.

12. Don’t stress about sleep

Above all, relax. “Sleep is resilient,” Clark said. Your body and sleep will adjust to a new location within a week or so, no matter what you do. A few sunny walks just get you there faster.

“I try to be patient with myself,” said Thomas, who will be racing at the Stade de France near Paris this week. “Your body is on a clock. It knows what it wants. You just have to work with it.”

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Adam Kilgore contributed to this report.