Why 8 hours is a myth and other athletes' sleep secrets

Performance coach Greg Meehan tells Alex Pattle how he keeps clients, including boxers and footballers, in top shape

- Alex Pattle

The truth is, you’re probably not sleeping correctly. Yes, you’ve slept every day of your life, but that doesn’t make you an expert, I’m afraid. If it’s any consolation, though, many professional athletes aren’t sleeping properly either. The good news is: there are experts out there.

Enter Greg Meehan, who advises athletes not only on sleep but also breath work and mental performance. These strands are threads on which more and more sportspeople are pulling, seeking marginal gains at the elite level. Meehan has worked with pro boxers, golfers and Premier League footballers – among others – and the east Londoner’s latest move is his book: Sleep For Athletes.

In it, Meehan analyses the “eight-hours myth”, the four sleep states, the sleep clock, and more. The book marks an attempt to demystify research around sleep, and to educate younger athletes who perhaps can’t afford a team of experts or sleep specialist. “I’d say 80 per cent of these athletes, I’d ask them about sleep, and they’d say they’re fine,” Meehan, 47, tells The Independent, “but I’d ask them a few questions about it, and it really wasn’t fine.

“Another coach around them would say: ‘Get eight hours, you’ll be fine.’ But the athlete would be going to sleep at different times, they wouldn’t know about circadian rhythms, and so on. There’s been high-level footballers I’ve worked with, and I’ve been surprised by their lack of knowledge around sleep.”

We’ll quickly return to circadian rhythms, but the easiest place to start is the “eight-hours myth”. You know it: we should aim for eight hours’ sleep a night, right? Not exactly.