Olympics - India get sleep doctor on board to put performance anxiety to bed

PARIS: India's athletes are being told that plenty of shut-eye could be the foundation for Olympic success and the team has roped in sleep therapist Monika Sharma to keep them at their sharpest in Paris.

Sharma says her appointment might be groundbreaking for India but is in line with what traditional sports powerhouses do to stay ahead of the game.

"Sleep is like brain fuel," Sharma told Reuters. "Just like an engine needs fuel to run, your brain needs sleep to function to its full capacity and potential. It is also the single best recovery strategy available to athletes and high-performers."

Optimised sleep repairs bones and muscles and boosts immunity, Sharma said, and can be equally beneficial for an athlete's cognitive function.

"Sleep helps in memory consolidation and emotional regulation. That's when an athlete is able to get razor-sharp focus and crystal-clear thinking," she added.

"Their reaction time, their accuracy, their judgment -- all of this is enhanced when an athlete is able to get adequate restorative sleep."

Sharma, who did her post-doctoral studies in the United States, has a string of data to hand to back her ideas up.

Optimised sleep can improve an athlete's reaction time by 11% and their shot accuracy by 15%, and they can sprint faster and leap higher, she said.

"They've reached a level where it's a matter of half a millimetre or fraction of a second," she said of the Olympic athletes.

Sharma has designed personal sleep schedules for the Indian athletes and developed strategies to combat jet-lag and time-zone issues.

The Indian Olympic Association is not sleeping on the job either and has organised three pods at the Athletes Village for the athletes to supplement their sleep.

"There's a lot of adrenalin rush, whether it's performance anxiety or excitability, and both of them can lead to disturbed sleep," Sharma said.

"The aim is to develop an environment which is sleep-conducive to ensure that our players are getting the best rest and recovery that will allow them to perform at their highest level."

Indian badminton player Tanisha Crasto cannot wait to try out the pods.

"It's a great initiative," the women's doubles player told Reuters.

"I'm really interested to try the sleep pods. The climate is very different there, the sun's going to set pretty late. I have seen these only on Reels or Instagram. I never really tried, really excited."