Scottish judo star Sarah Clark has been on the Scottish Institute of Sport's fully managed sports programme for over 6 years.
During this time she has received a range of services to support her evolving performance needs. Most recently she has worked with the Institute's sports medicine experts to help her address her erratic sleep patterns.
Sarah brought her concerns to the attention of head of sports medicine, Dr Brian Walker, as she felt that her consistent lack of sleep was having an impact on her performance. Sleep deprivation is experienced by many people in the UK and is the result of a number of factors including illness and stress, however in many instances there is no obvious explanation. Sleep is essential for high performance athletes as they need sleep to allow them to recover after training and competition.
After consultation, Sarah was provided with a 'sleep watch' which measured her activity throughout the day and most importantly, during the night. A simple device, the watch looks much like a common digital model, however it is extremely high tech and the findings can be significant. For Sarah improving her sleep could have meant the difference between watching the Games from her home in Edinburgh and actually participating as part of Team GB in Beijing.
Combining a simple sleep diary with results streamed from the 'sleep watch' allowed Brian to get a true picture of Sarah's sleep issues. After a full day's training, Sarah would still experience a restless night and therefore she wouldn't fully recover from the session and as a result she would start the next day feeling fatigued.
Following analysis of the results, Sarah was able to address her sleep issue effectively. He also referred her to the specialists at one of Scotland's leading sleep centres to provide her with further guidance allowing her to tackle the issue on an ongoing basis. Brian worked with her to equip her with ways to improve her sleep. In particular, she has worked with Brian on techniques to help her get to sleep quicker and has also identified ways for her to get more sleep, such as something as simple as a daytime rest. In addition she now sleeps with a cooling blanket as medical research has found that the cooler you are the better you will sleep.
Sarah has already achieved one of her goals this year by turning out to represent Team GB in Beijing in August. She will continue her work with Brian and the sleep centre and hopes the early improvements will continue to enhance her focus.
Sleep is a vital part of recovery and therefore performance. As such the Scottish Institute of Sport is also working with a range of athletes in the golf, swimming and rugby support programmes. It is clear that a good night's sleep, which many take for granted, is essential to all athletes and it is only when athletes have interrupted sleep that the full impact is apparent.