31. Dr. Cheri Mah - Sleep Specialist and Consultant to Elite Athletes and Pro Sports Teams

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Sleep Specialist and Consultant to elite athletes, pro sports teams and leagues joins todays show. Cheri is a Research Fellow at University of California San Francisco’s Human Performance Center and UCSF School of Medicine. Driven by an interest in the impact of sleep on mental and physical performance in elite athletes she has become a leading authority on sleeps impact on sports performance. Cheri consults with elite athletes, college programs and professional teams in the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB among others about how to optimize performance through sleep education, technology and the application of sleep research. She’s also a member of Nike’s Performance Council and continues to operate as a consultant to ESPN. She’s been featured in ESPN, NY Times, Wall Street and recently by TIME for her work with Andre Iguadola and the Golden State Warriors during their championship seasons.

Cheri shares how she became interested in the field of sleep research and her interest and how she came to work with athletes and sports organizations. She explains sleep debt and how you should properly catch up. The concept of social jet lag and why the power nap might offer a better alternative. She discusses how she works with professional athletes and teams. Introduces how sleep and travel alone can impact the outcome of a game. Outlines the key areas of sleep she monitors with her athletes and provides tips as to how listeners can improve their own sleep quality after listening.

Mentioned in the Show:

ESPN Schedule Alert project - article about the impact of travel and sleep on NBA season and game outcomes: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/21236405/nba-schedule-alert-20-games-tired-teams-lose-november

Follow Dr. Mah:

Instagram: @cheri_mah https://www.instagram.com/cheri_mah/?hl=en

Twitter: @Cheri_Mah https://twitter.com/Cheri_Mah?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Email: cherimah@stanfordalumni.org

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Produced By: Justin Gunter, Ken Gunter