The Canoeist’s Sleep Trick: Puts Tape On Light Sources

January 22, 2021

Canoeist Petter Menning is one of 17 active people who before the Olympics in Tokyo receive extra guidance for better sleep.

I thought it sounded really fuzzy with a sleep coach but it was very concrete things that you could turn off or continue with, says Menning.

Swimmer Michelle Coleman has put her mobile phone outside the bedroom and pedestrian Perseus Karlström is often forced to shoot around the clock.

Canoeist Petter Menning thinks he got good tips for sleeping better, even though he was a little skeptical at first.
Photo: Fredrik Sandberg / TT (Source link: Dagens Nyhether)

He admits that it sounded a bit nerdy when the Swedish Olympic Committee called for a conference that would make him sleep better.

Today, Petter Menning is grateful and thinks that he has received help to relax before sleep thanks to SOK’s sleeping project.

You may not need to sleep more hours, but you can learn to sleep better the hours you sleep.

He has tried different things to get better sleep and found what helps him.

The last hour before I go to sleep, I try to avoid screens and blue light, everything that comes from TV and mobile, but also strong lights.

When he is traveling, there is a roll of tape in the luggage, the tape he uses to cover for bright spots in the hotel room.

It may seem excessive, but it is apparently the case that the slightest light can disturb a little from deep sleep. I may not need more hours of sleep, I sleep eight to nine hours a night, but I try to get more hours of deep sleep.

Tenth place at the Olympics in Rio 2016 was a disappointment. In Tokyo, Petter Menning hopes for greater success.
Photo: Daniel Stiller / Bildbyrån (Source link: Dagens Nyhether)

Petter Menning uses meditation before competitions. Now he also does it to sleep.

I might meditate in the evening instead of in the morning, it makes me come down a bit in level.

He tries to fall asleep at ten in the evening.

I have children who are four and two years old and it affects sleep. We have decided that when I have a tougher training period, I will not go up with the children at night unless absolutely necessary.

Before big competitions, it can be so and so with sleep.

Then it helps to have your routines with you. You can go on adrenaline for a couple of days and compensate by sleeping during the day. But I have slept quite a bit some nights and performed well anyway. It is important to remember that too so you do not lie down and worry and sleep even worse.

If I train very hard, it can be harder to fall asleep.

He had hoped for more than a tenth place at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

My mother got cancer and was in hospital, everything was a bit shaky, it was not a good period in life.

In the autumn he had his first child.

You could say that then it got better.

He tries to train earlier in the afternoon so that the body has time to calm down.

The nervous system is turned on after hard workouts, especially if there is a lot of lactic acid involved, then the whole system is up and running. You might think that when you train the hardest you would fall asleep early, but if I train very hard it can be harder to fall asleep.

Perseus Karlström is used to training in the mornings but will shoot on the main sessionsto adapt to the Olympic start time.
In the same way, he adjusts sleep.
Photo: JonasLindkvist (Source link: Dagens Nyhether)

When Perseus Karlström in October 2019 took the World Cup bronze in the 20 kilometer walk, he finished after midnight, the race started at 23.30.

Then I would have shot around the clock. I tried to sleep as long as possible, I think I slept until twelve or one in the day.

The week before, he had prepared by training at 11pm in the evening.

Then I ate dinner at one or two o’clock at night, I might go to bed at three or four o’clock. It was still eight hours of sleep even though it was postponed. It was the first time I competed so late, otherwise I think half past eight is the last time I competed.

Karlström, who does not belong to the group of 17 elite athletes that SOK has chosen to get extra help to sleep well, tries to get between eight and nine hours of sleep.

I feel good if I sleep too little, everything goes much slower. It takes a long time for the body to get started and I get much more tired.

Karlström managed to change the day (and adapt to the heat) so well at the World Cupin Doha that he won a bronze medal.
Photo: Joel Marklund / Bildbyrån (Source link: Dagens Nyhether)

During the Olympics in Japan , Perseus will compete in the late afternoon.

For me, that start time is not normal. We usually start at eight or nine in the morning. The earliest I have competed is at seven o’clock, in Australia we usually compete very early to avoid the worst heat.

Ten days before the start, he will start adapting the training to the start time.

I will run the main sessions later in the afternoon instead of running them in the morning.

Before early competitions, he goes to bed at nine o’clock in the evening.

I think that the night before the competition is very important. There are many who say that the last night is not so important but I want to sleep well that night. If you twist and turn, it just feels like it takes longer until you have to step up. I usually get up around a quarter to five and have breakfast two hours before competition.

There are many who say that the last night is not so important but I want to sleep well that night.

When Karlström flies east , forward in time, he usually takes the sleep hormone melatonin to fall asleep faster.

I have taken melatonin to fall asleep faster if it is only a few days in place before competition. If it’s just a training camp, I usually do not take anything, then there may be a few nights with poorer sleep before you get into the right circadian rhythm.

He thinks he knows tricks that make the time change easier.

I also try to sleep a little more before I go so that I am rested. Itis usually a night flight to the east then I usually sleep on the plane and when we land I change immediately at the time that applies.

Swimmer Michelle Coleman feels that her body needs more and better recovery nowthat she is older and training harder.
Photo: Jonas Lindkvist (Source link: Dagens Nyhether)

Michelle Coleman thought she was keeping track of her sleep.

But I did not have that. Now I have started sleeping with the phone outside the bedroom and have a real alarm clock. I do not want anything that distracts me when I go to bed. I could see something in the social and so I went to bed with that feeling even though it may not reflect how the day was, I wanted to break that pattern.

When Michelle was younger and went to school, she trained at half past five in the morning.

It went well. Now I train harder and my body needs more and better recovery. I’m pretty good at going to bed on time, it’s about nine or ten in the evening. I want at least eight hours of sleep, preferably nine. After all, sleep increases the body’s ability to defend itself against diseases.

Coleman likes that she brings her own bed set to the Olympics in Tokyo.

The travel kit we received is good because it can really be a problem. In an Olympic village, it may not be the highest standard of beds, duvets, sheets and such things, it is more basic. It has happened that we had to buy bed mattresses on site.

Michelle Coleman has started sleeping with her mobile phone outside the bedroom.
Photo: SOK (Source link: Dagens Nyhether)