😴 Sleep is key to recovery for athletes. Researchers at Stanford University’s Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine (led by Cheri Mah) studied the effects of sleep extension on athletic performance. Athletes aimed for 10 hours of sleep per night for several weeks. The results were significant for both performance and well-being. 🏊 Swimmers who increased their sleep: • Shaved an average of 0.51 seconds off their 15-meter sprint • Left the blocks 0.15 seconds faster • Shaved 0.10 seconds off their turn time • Reported more energy, better mood, and less muscle fatigue nutritionwithwendi.com/blog/…

Waking at 2–4 a.m. is common in athletes, and it is not always a sleep-hygiene problem. Make sure you’re feeling your afternoon training properly. Training raises overnight energy demand. If intake across the day is low, liver glycogen runs down and blood glucose can drift. The body answers with cortisol, adrenaline, and hunger signals. That hormonal rise is often what pulls you out of sleep. In sports nutrition this sits under low energy availability: chronic underfueling is linked with poorer sleep, higher illness risk, and impaired recovery, not just a rumbling stomach. Being ravenous at midnight is a signal, not a personality trait. Appetite hormones respond to the deficit you built all day. If lunch was small, dinner was late, or training was not matched with carbohydrate, night hunger is the predictable result. A small pre-sleep snack can help close that gap: carbohydrate to support overnight glucose, plus protein to support overnight muscle protein synthesis. About 20–40 g of protein before bed, often studied as casein, increases overnight muscle protein synthesis. Pair it with a modest portion of carbohydrate if you trained that day or you are waking hungry. I recommend grabbing Greek yogurt and berries, cottage cheese and cherries, or some deli turkey. Sip on tart cherry juice or a little string cheese. It is a PM recovery snack, not a second dinner.