World Cup fever is here, and as the tournament kicks off, football fans will be looking at their calendar trying to work out how they can watch matches in the early hours of weekday mornings, and still function the following day.
This summer’s World Cup is set to be the biggest ever, with 48 teams and a record 104 matches to be played across Canada, Mexico, and the USA. The majority of games kick off in the evening and through the night in the UK. There are kick-off times as late as 2am, 3am, and 5am BST, which could disrupt sleep patterns.
There will be plenty of keen football fans attempting the feat of watching every minute of every match this World Cup. Dr Neil Stanley, independent sleep expert at thesleepconsultancy.com with 44 years of experience, shared his advice on how fans could adjust their sleeping patterns for the World Cup.
Dr Stanley has suggested that uber-keen football fans attempting to watch every minute of every match adopt a ‘power nap strategy’ with short 30-minute sleeps in the early afternoon to help keep you awake to watch the football overnight.
“Judicious napping and using caffeine wisely.”
“I’d recommend power naps for thirty minutes. However sleepy you feel, a thirty-minute nap is going to be much better than a long one, because a long nap will make it even harder for you to sleep later. Having a thirty-minute nap in the mid-afternoon will be a real boost, rather than trying to cope after a long sleep.
“If you're only watching one specific late-night match, fans might want to consider going to bed and setting an alarm for just before kick-off. That can be easier than trying to stay awake all night”, said Dr Stanley.
That could be salient advice for Scotland fans this weekend as their opening World Cup match vs Haiti kicks off at 2am BST on Sunday morning.
For fans wishing to complete all 104 games, Dr Stanley’s strategy is simple: “Judicious napping and using caffeine wisely.”
However, he added a word of warning for fans planning to rely too heavily on caffeine to stay up late for games.
“People might think it would be a good idea to drink energy drinks or lots of tea and coffee, but the problem is that caffeine may make it difficult for you to sleep when you actually need to sleep.
“If you have an energy drink just before the match, you're going to have the buzz of the match and the buzz of the caffeine, and that will make it very difficult for you to sleep afterwards. Caffeine earlier in the evening is okay. Caffeine too late at night is going to cause problems.”
“As a sleep expert, I am absolutely obliged to say that alcohol isn't good for sleep, but for crying out loud, it is the World Cup. It only happens once every four years. Moderate alcohol isn't a problem, but if you want to get a good night's sleep, alcohol is always going to work against that.”
Likewise, your diet can be a contributing factor to your sleep quality, and when you eat and what you eat should be considered to help your sleep.
“Don't eat too much during the night. The body doesn't really want to do anything overnight. That's why we sleep. Feeding it snacks throughout the night is going to make the body work at a time it doesn't want to. Try not to eat too much too late and try to steer clear of sugary and fatty foods, even though that's what you'll be craving.”
Explaining the science behind the best strategy for the World Cup all-nighters, Dr Stanley advises you to wear a jumper and keep the lights on to trick your body into thinking it should be awake.
“Overnight, your body loses temperature, so you'll feel cool. Have a jumper or something similar to put on around 1 or 2am. Don't sit there in the dark with just the television on. Put the lights on because even artificial light is a cue to the body that it's time to be awake.”
Many fans will be turning to alcohol to enhance their enjoyment of the World Cup, and unsurprisingly, Dr Stanley suggests alcohol consumption will negatively affect your sleep.
“As a sleep expert, I am absolutely obliged to say that alcohol isn't good for sleep, but for crying out loud, it is the World Cup. It only happens once every four years. Moderate alcohol isn't a problem, but if you want to get a good night's sleep, alcohol is always going to work against that.”
“Alcohol does make you sleepy, so drinking alcohol is probably the worst thing from a sleep point of view because it will make you sleepy at a time when you want to be awake. Then, of course, it can make it difficult for you to sleep properly after you've watched the match.”
Many fans will be working the following day after these late-night viewings, and Dr Stanley advises booking the day off, if you can. He added a word of warning for anyone driving to work the following day, or using any kind of machinery, as a lack of sleep can be as debilitating to the body as alcohol.
“[Fans should] not get behind the wheel of a car, because you are going to be at massively increased risk of having a car accident. If you have a car accident and are found to be sleepy, that could be considered dangerous driving rather than careless driving. You are really pushing the limits of what you should be doing. If you're in a safety-critical industry, I would question the wisdom of going to work at all.”
No matter what you went to bed the night before, getting up consistently at a regular time will help keep the body clock in check.
“Sunlight is the best thing to tell your body to be awake. When you wake up, open the curtains, get out into the sunshine, go for a walk, breathe some fresh air and stretch your legs. That's probably the best start to the day you can have.
“We know that regularity of sleep is important. Rather than having lie-ins, getting up at the same time each day, regardless of what time you went to bed, is probably the better scenario. It just means some days you are really going to struggle. If that's the case, have a power nap in the afternoon”, said Dr Stanley.
So there we have it, if you’re a football fanatic with the ambition of watching every single World Cup match, then implement Dr Stanley’s top tips to help keep you awake this summer… and let’s hope the football keeps us entertained, too.
