Tess Johnson has always had trouble sleeping the night before a competition. The 25-year-old, who will be representing Team U.S.A. at the Olympics this month, competes in moguls skiing — a discipline that involves making very tight turns down bumpy runs and performing two acrobatic jumps on the way down. In other words, there is little room for error.
“I’ll find myself waking up in the middle of the night, just kind of ruminating,” Ms. Johnson said. “Whether it’s something in my skiing, or the result.”
Intense training, busy travel schedules, and the pressure of competition can all wreak havoc on elite athletes’ sleep. In a 2024 study of 1,603 Team U.S.A. athletes, nearly 40 percent of them reported poor sleep.
Sleep plays a role in athletic performance, but the pressure to optimize sleep can backfire. For that reason, Emily Clark, a psychologist for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee who frequently advises athletes on sleep, tells them to aim for consistency, not perfection.
“Vigilance around sleep is counterproductive to sleep,” she said.
Here’s how sleep experts who work with Olympians help them rest better. You don’t need to be an elite athlete to benefit from their advice.
If you’re sleeping somewhere new, make the place your own.
The Olympic Village can be a particularly difficult place to sleep, with tight quarters and notoriously uncomfortable beds. Ms. Johnson, who competed at the Games in 2018, recalls the “paper-thin” walls in PyeongChang, South Korea.
“I could totally hear people above me, under me, next to me,” Ms. Johnson said. She fell asleep listening to white noise on noise-cancelling headphones. Now she rarely travels without them.
Julia Kern, a Team U.S.A. cross-country skier, regularly travels with her own pillow and a mini humidifier to maintain a sense of consistency during the winter race season, when she typically stays in a different hotel each week.
Managing your sleep environment — ideally to make your space dark, quiet, and cool — is an essential component of good sleep hygiene, Dr. Clark said. The goal is to control what you can and accept that some sleep disruptions are inevitable.
Develop a calming evening routine
Ms. Kern is also prone to late-night rumination — and the stakes of Olympic competition don’t help. “Sometimes, after a race, I’ll replay the race in my head and get in this cycle,” she said. To refocus her mind, she imagines she is in bed at home, pictures a blank space or practices box breathing.
Rhythmic breathing exercises are one way to help you relax and send a signal to your sympathetic nervous system that it’s time to wind down, the experts said.
“We want to create a protected time for the body to be prepared for sleep,” Dr. Clark said. You could take a warm shower, listen to calming music or journal, she said. Dr. Clark recommends avoiding activities that may get you worked up before bed — like watching dramatic TV shows or scrolling on your phone.
Wake up at a consistent time
Sleep consistency, or sticking to a relatively regular bedtime and wake-up time, has been linked to better health. But going to bed at a particular hour can be challenging at the Games, especially for athletes competing in evening events.
Jim Doorley, another psychologist for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, tells athletes to focus instead on keeping their wake-up time stable.
Waking up at roughly the same time every morning helps establish your circadian rhythm, especially if you get a dose of natural light. If natural light is not an option, Dr. Clark said, exercise and eating are the next best ways to reset your internal clock.
Don’t obsess over your sleep score
While sleep tracking can have some benefits, Dr. Doorley said, it can also lead to “pressure and perfectionism.” He has seen athletes compare sleep scores from their devices (a rating that’s typically based on sleep quality and duration) and even compete with one another. “Sometimes, with more knowledge, comes almost the curse of knowledge,” he said.
Ms. Johnson experimented with sleep trackers for a while, but said the experience of “waking up and being told I slept poorly when actually I felt fine” wasn’t worth the stress.
Ms. Kern tracks her sleep with a device and generally finds it useful, but she makes a point not to check her sleep scores on race weekends so she doesn’t fixate on them.
Remember your body is resilient
The U.S.O.P.C.’s sleep guidelines note that, while it’s important for athletes to get consistent sleep, “one night of poor sleep is rarely enough to derail your performance when you have adrenaline on your side and good sleep banked from prior nights.”
Dr. Doorley advises athletes to try to tap into a “childlike relationship to sleep,” or sleeping when you’re tired and trying not to overthink it. “Letting go is essential,” he said.
Ms. Johnson agreed: “That is something I’ve had to learn over my years. I’ve gotten some of my best results on, like, four hours of sleep, probably.”
