HAMBURG — Sleep less to get enough sleep? Is he serious? “Yes, Rudi, I’d postpone your bedtime to 12:30 a.m. Does that sound crazy?”
Yes, he is serious. And yes, to me that sounds crazy. Almost as crazy as the fact that I’m getting this tip from the most famous sleep coach in the world: Nick Littlehales, better known as “Ronaldo’s sleep coach.” That’s what the press has been calling him since he optimized soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo ‘s nighttime sleep.
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Littlehales is connecting to me via video from Nottingham, England. Glasses, bomber jacket, crew cut. Behind him is a wall with a brick photo wallpaper and a dartboard. He also has a voice like a bartender — deep, calm, with a slight northern English accent. It suits a person you’d open your bedroom door to.
That’s is something many have done since the late 1990s. Littlehales has taught Ronaldo and other football players from other clubs to sleep, including Manchester United, Arsenal London and Liverpool. He has also advised the England national football team, NFL football teams and the Great Britain Cycling Team, whose rider Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France in 2012 and Olympic gold.
Olympic champions, world champions, top athletes – Littlehales coached them all. Now he coaches me, a middle-aged journalist who often lies awake.
On nights like these, I stare into the darkness and listen to the breathing of my children, who are sleeping wonderfully well in their parents’ bed, while I ponder about work and the state of the world. Until birds chirp outside, pale light creeps through the curtains and I hate myself for not sleeping.
It’s been like this for years. That’s why I started to write a longer text about sleep . During my research, I came across Littlehales. I emailed him, we talked about his story, about sleep phases and footballers. At the end of the conversation he said: “I could improve your sleep, too. Free of charge. Would you like to, Rudi?”
“Sure, Nick!” Why is he offering this? Advertising? Sympathy? Pity?
In any case, he wants to clarify something: it’s about the reports saying that he recommended Ronaldo to sleep for 90 minutes six times a day, rather than seven to nine hours at a time. “A misunderstanding,” says Littlehales. “You could even call it fake news.”
He would never wake someone up every 90 minutes. And he didn’t only coach Ronaldo but his whole team, Real Madrid.
46 questions
A few weeks later, Littlehales sends me a link to a questionnaire with 46 questions. “Age?” “Height?” “Weight?” Then: “Right-handed? Left-handed?” I wonder what that has to do with sleep.
Next question: “Do you regularly sleep in bed with someone else?” One? Three! A wife and two children. This is followed by family questions, housing questions, travel questions. And: “What best describes your lifestyle and professional activities? A) Sitting B) Balanced activity C) High achiever.” Mmm. I sit a lot and do little sport. So A would be my choice. Sitting? Sounds like a slacker, I know.
Finally, it’s about my sleep rhythm (I used to sleep from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m., now I sleep more from 11:30 p.m. to 7 a.m.), sleep habits (Sleep-to-sleep routines? Light sleeper?) and health (Diets? Medication?). At the end I book a one-hour appointment. My “Elite Athlete Coaching Call “.
Sounds like Ronaldo. Not like a Rudi with a sedentary lifestyle.
“Don’t worry,” Littlehales says behind his screen in Nottingham. “My approach is practical and easy to use.” That is the key to success. “The first step is to change your perception. We have to redefine sleep for you.”
No one can control their sleep while they are asleep. If you want to sleep well, you have to make sure of it beforehand. “Through small things that we can use to change your behavior without much effort.” That sounds better.
Littlehales displays a PowerPoint presentation. A racing cyclist can be seen, above which is a quartered ring with “R90 Technique” written inside. The symbol for the Recovery 90 method. That is what Littlehales called his sleep technique.
It’s about not understanding sleep as a unit of 7.5 hours, but breaking it down into cycles of 90 minutes. If you manage to sleep for five 90-minute cycles, perfect. If you don’t manage that, you can take recovery breaks of around 30 minutes during the day. Littlehales talks about CRPs, or Controlled Recovery Periods. In the nursing home, they call it a nap.
Sales and science
But you won’t become one of the Ronaldos of this world by napping. That’s why Littlehales talks about technique, control and performance. Littlehales’ greatest skill, though, is selling. Always.
He sold mattresses until 1998, then he met Manchester United Head Coach Alex Ferguson at a reception and sold him his knowledge of how important good sleep is for top performance. Littlehales should know, after all he not only had experience with mattresses but also an aborted career as a professional golfer.
Ferguson was impressed. When a United player had back problems shortly afterwards, he called the mattress salesman. Littlehales was able to help with a new mattress. From then on, Ferguson had him optimize the United players’ sleep.
You have to understand that there is a rhythm that determines you as a person.
Three years later, Manchester won the cup, the championship and the Champions League. Coincidence? Maybe. In any case, the success made Littlehales an internationally known sleep coach. Today, an Elite High Performance Coaching session with Littlehales costs just under £1,300, around €1,500.
Littlehales’ second greatest skill is giving his methods a scientific touch — through sentences that sound like a calendar saying. “You have to understand that there is a rhythm that determines you as a person and your functionality.” Littlehales is now on slide four and the circadian rhythm, the human internal clock.
“The sun moves around the planet, it is the external clock. It’s not about times, it’s about processes.” And these are determined by the light that signals to our brain in the morning that it should wake up and causes tiredness in the evening.
The right rhythm
“It has nothing to do with the day of the week. It’s an ongoing 24-hour process,” Littlehales says. That’s why it’s not a big deal if you do not sleep five cycles for a few days. He thinks that you can also plan your cycles for a week. Or for a month. For a year. Littlehales talks. Without a break, for half an hour, deeply and calmly. It’s getting dark outside. If I close my eyes now…
“In your questionnaire, Rudi, there are indications that your ideal start to the day would be nine in the morning. But you must get up at 7 or 8.” I sit up abruptly. Littlehales looks at me from the screen. “Then you are woken up by the alarm clock every day, that’s bad. I can’t remember the last time my alarm clock rang.” Nick is in his rhythm. Rudi is not.
At least I’m not alone. Since the Industrial Revolution, people have been exchanging powerful natural light for dim electric light, thereby throwing their rhythm out of sync.
“So we need to bring rhythm to your 24 hours,” Littlehales says. To do this, you first need an ARP, an anchor reset point.
“Your ARP, your self-chosen sunrise, is at 7 a.m. Your first 90-minute cycle is from 7 to 8:30 a.m.” I think “self-chosen” is a bit of hyperbole. Littlehales says, “If you divide your day into 16 cycles of 90 minutes, starting at 7 a.m., after 11 cycles you end up at 11:30 p.m. Half past 11 is late for many people, but you’re a night person.”
Another five cycles later you’d be back at 7 a.m. “Have you noticed that?”
No. Noticed what? But Littlehales is already looking at my questionnaire, the children, the wife, the job. He says: “If all that weren’t there, you’d start at 10 in the morning and sit down at your desk again after midnight. Because that’s what feels natural for you, that would give you that second little creative high.”
True, I think. The only problem is that my wife, children and early ARP don’t care much about my second little creative high.
Less sleep, better sleep?
The next slide features a kind of staircase. Next to the upper steps is REM, next to the lower steps is non-REM. The types of sleep people have. The dream-filled REM sleep and the deep non-REM sleep that serves for regeneration. Or, as Littlehales puts it: “There, right at the bottom is the good stuff, the 20% of sleep you need.”
But to reach that you have to go down the stairs. “You won’t get there if you’re still digesting food from the day.” So: “What if I move Rudi’s bedtime to half past 12?”
The evening would be less stressful, the children would already be in bed, the food would be digested, and Rudi would fall into deep non-REM sleep without a care in the world. This way, though, a whole sleep cycle is eliminated, and Rudi can even get up half an hour earlier, at 6:30 a.m. I stare at the screen. Is he serious?
Littlehales raises his hands and says: “How long you sleep is important. But what’s even more important is that you recover.”
Then he shows his thoughts as a diagram. In the middle of the slide is the R-90 circle. Around it is a tangle of abbreviations, arrows and times. Next to 7 a.m. is “ARP”, between 5.30 and 7 a.m. it says “Wake Cycle 16.” Around the afternoon there are bent arrows with the label “CRP Midpoint 30 Min Cycle.”
Above the time from 11.30 p.m. to 4 a.m. it says “Cycles 12/13/14” and below it “Deep Sleep Phase.”
I stop and think of my former financial advisor. Whenever I went to see him, he would give me apple juice and then start talking in a deep, calm voice. About percentages, terms and government subsidies. He would scribble calculations and diagrams on a sheet of paper.
In the end, the paper would be full of curves and numbers. I wouldn’t understand anything, and I would still sign the papers enthusiastically. Because he made me feel good about something simple that seemed complicated: investing money.
Finding a rythm
This is also the case with Nick Littlehales. If you have trouble sleeping, his tips will make you feel good.
Scientists are less enthusiastic. For example, because of the sleep phases. A cycle is 90-minutes long, and there is more non-REM sleep in the first two cycles. But they do not last exactly 90 minutes. Researchers also suspect that REM sleep in the later phases helps link newly learned things in the brain.
If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll stay stupid, one could say. Sleep researchers generally reject the idea of deliberately breaking up or shortening sleep. Their recommendation is 7.5 hours for anyone who wants to wake up well-rested. Littlehales replies that he just wants to get more recovery out of 24 hours. “People who come to me want to wake up refreshed, even if they can’t sleep 7.5 hours.”
If you miss a Micro Recovery Moment: Don’t worry.
To ensure that the six hours of sleep that Nick recommends are enough for me, I should have two Controlled Recovery Periods in the afternoon. “Whenever it suits me.” Plus a few short recovery breaks, so-called MRMs, Micro Recovery Moments.
“It’s simple, Rudi. Get up, fill up a water bottle. Look out the window. Give your mind two minutes. Oh, and if you miss an MRM: Don’t worry, don’t worry, don’t worry.” Littlehales says, smiling.
A few days later he sent me a manual. On the front is the R-90 circle. Inside is an explanation of his method. My own sleep diagram is also included. Full of abbreviations, arrows and times. Have I found my rhythm?
It is three o’clock in the morning. The article is done. Don’t worry, don’t worry, don’t worry. In the new year, I will implement Littlehales’ tips. For sure.
