Before your next endurance event, try getting a few extra sleep hours. Study findings by Deakin University researchers in Australia show athletes who slept longer than usual for 3 nights in a row performed better in a cycling time trial than athletes who slept normally or who restricted their sleep. Extra sleep altered the perception of exertion, enabling athletes to work harder at a given exercise intensity than those who slept less.

The study was reported in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2019; 51 [12], 2516–23).