How sleep transformed professional football

A few decades ago, professional footballers used to spend their

nights partying. Now, they are much more conscious about the benefits of a
good night’s sleep.

The change started in the mid-1990s, when mattress salesman Nick

Littlehales contacted the manager of the Manchester United football team,
Alex Ferguson, asking if he had ever considered how sleep affected
performance on the field. Interested, Ferguson asked Littlehales to give a
presentation to the team. Suddenly, all the team had new mattresses and
pillows, and Littlehales soon became football’s leading mattress advisor. In
1998, he delivered mattresses for England’s World Cup team, and at the
2004 Euros, he created individual sleep routines for every player.

Gradually, club managers started to pay more attention to scientific

sleep investigations, and for good reason. In 2011, sleep specialist Cheri
Mah discovered that increasing sleep to 8-10 hours per night increased the
speed and shot accuracy of basketball players. Other research shows that
one single night of inadequate sleep can increase the risk of injury, and 64
hours of bad sleep reduces strength, power and balance, and can cause the
body to eat its own muscles!

Consequently, managers started trying to improve their players’

sleep. Southampton Football Club’s manager Alek Gross, for example,
prohibited his players from consuming caffeine, sugar or junk food, which
prevent sleep, in the evenings. Instead, the club gave them milky protein
drinks which made them tired. The Mexico team manager was also worried
about sleep loss when travelling to their World Cup group games in Russia.
Together with Manchester United sports scientist Robin Thorpe, he planned
a sleep and training schedule to optimize performance. Even the hotel
bedrooms were set to the ideal sleeping temperature. The players supported
the routine. In fact, on the evening of a game, the Mexican captain Rafael
Marquez even asked fans who were celebrating at the same hotel to keep
quiet because the team were sleeping. The intervention was a great
success. Mexico won their next game versus South Korea and even beat
Germany in their group.

In the past, playing after a party and with just a few hours’ sleep used
to be a symbol of honour, but now a good sleep is considered an essential
part of a great performance.
Choose the correct person for each sentence

1. ________ increased sales for his business

a) Alek Gross
b) Rafael Marquez
c) Nick Littlehales
d) Alex Ferguson

2. ________ studied the effect of sleep on athletic performance

a) Alek Gross
b) Rafael Marquez
c) Alex Ferguson
d) Cheri Mah

3. ________ designed a training schedule to better players’ performance

a) Alek Gross
b) Robin Thorpe
c) Rafael Marquez
d) Alex Ferguson

4. ________ asked people to be quiet so that the team could sleep

a) Alek Gross
b) Rafael Marquez
c) Alex Ferguson
d) Cheri Mah

5. ________ invited someone to give a talk about sleep and beds

a) Alek Gross
b) Rafael Marquez
c) Alex Ferguson
d) Cheri Mah
 6. ________ made the players to change their diets before going to sleep
a) Alek Gross
b) Rafael Marquez
c) Alex Ferguson
d) Nick Littlehales

Hi Lucia
How are you? It was so nice to meet you last week in Sydney at the sales
meeting. How was the rest of your trip? Did you see any kangaroos? I
hope you got home to Mexico City OK.
Anyway, I have the documents about the new Berlin offices. We're going
to open in three months. I moved here from London just last week. They
are very nice offices, and the location is perfect. There are lots of
restaurants, cafés and banks in the area. There's also public transport; we
are next to a U-Bahn (that is the name for the metro here). Maybe you can
come and see them one day? I would love to show you Berlin, especially
in the winter. You said you never saw snow – you will see a lot here!
Here's a photo of you and me at the restaurant in Sydney. That was a
very fun night! Remember the singing old man? Crazy! Please send me
any other photos you have of that night. Good memories.
Please give me your email address and I will send you the documents.
Bye for now
Mikel

Write the right country in the spaces

1. Mikel and Lucia met in _____________________
2. Mikel’s new offices are in ____________________
3. Mikel used to live in _____________________
4. Lucia lives in _____________________

Write T for TRUE or F for FALSE

1. Mikel and Lucia were friends from school ________
2. The new offices are in a very good location ________
3. There’s a metro next to the offices ________
4. Mikel never saw snow before ________
5. Mikel doesn’t have Lucia’s email ________
6. Lucia wants to send Mikel some documents ________