I don’t know any avid golfer who isn’t looking for tips to improvehis or her game. Some of my golfing friends are real fanatics, incessantlytalking about ways to reduce the numberof strokes it takes to get through eighteen holes. And now I finally haveproof to make a case for my area of expertise: better sleep. Equipment,weather conditions, athleticism, and technique aside, if you can get your gameon at night, you can get your game on over the greens. Seriously.
I’m not making this up. A study
out of Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey found a group of golfers
that improved their golf game by up to
three strokes. Granted, these golfers suffered from sleep apnea and were
users of the C-PAP,
a continuous positive airway pressure mask that helps them sleep better. But my
guess is that if a study were done on the general golfing population, we’d see
similar findings: those who sleep better,
golf better.
Why? Easy. Consider the following benefits of a good night’ssleep:
- Better concentration and ability to focus.
- Better hand-eye coordination.
- Alertness.
- Sharper memory (torecall the level of difficulty or technical secrets to a certain hole, thecourse terrain, etc.)
All of this bodes well for the golfer—or any sports playerfor that matter.
So, why were researchers looking at the effects of a C-PAPon golfers in particular? Sounds like an odd thing to report on. But not whenyou consider that savvy supporters of the C-PAP (myself included) are alwayslooking for ways to motivate people who suffer from obstructivesleep apnea to wear these highly-effectivedevices. It also turns out that the better you are at golf, the more youhave to gain (or lose, depending on how you look at it from a stroke perspective)from achieving restful sleep at night. The more adept golfers in the study lostthe most strokes.
Now go sleep. And go play.
Sweet Dreams,
Michael J. Breus, PhD
www.thesleepdoctor.com
This article on sleep and golf is also available at Dr. Breus's official blog, The Insomnia Blog.