The relationship between sleep and athletic performance is a complicated one. We all know how important a good night's rest is for our health, but when the pressures of race day near, a blissful eight hours feels nothing short of a pipe dream.
Anxiety-ridden sleep is a feeling I know all too well – and, if you're reading this, chances are you do too. As a keen runner and a bad sleeper, I rarely snooze well the night before a race (if at all), no matter how hard I try to improve sleep. Performance anxiety feeds my sleep anxiety and vice versa in a vicious cycle that makes me feel doomed to fail.
