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My mom made me and my sister go to bed by eight every night all the way until I was in high school.  Even my first two years in high school My bed time was at ten thirty, lights out.  I use to fight her all the time about my curfew, but it was when I got older and I stayed out later and later that I relized how much my mom was right about going to bed early.  When I started staying out later and getting less sleep I felt slow, weak and my football skills were going down the drain.  I thank my mom all the time to this day for making me go to bed so early.  I feel that your foundation as a kid is going to effect you in huge ways later on in your life.  But its not to late, ten things Jon North advices you to help you sleep better and improve your proformace.
Stick to a regular schedule.  go to bed and get up at the same time each day, even on weekends. 
Try to get regulare exercise.
use your ben primarily for sleeping.
invest in a good bed
dont take your worries to bed with you
dont go to bed on a full stomoch
aim for quality sleep not quanity sleep
develop a pre sleep routine
dont try too hard, if you cant fall asleep within fifteen min, get up and do something else and come back to bed when you feel tierd.
no daytime naps.
Jon north two thousand and twelve. 

Jon’s mom used to dress him and comb his hair before school every day too, gotta love corduroy!

Jon’s right, every hour you get before midnight is the equivalent of two after. i never thought this until i got a little older and needed to go to bed earlier to be able to get to work on time in the morning but it’s amazing how different you feel if you go to bed even an hour earlier regularly.

hahaha, corduroy…

the funny thing about our current sleep habits is that before the invention of electricity and artifical lighting, we used to go to bed pretty much as soon as the sun went down (unless you used a fire/candles/lanterns) and woke up as soon as it rose in the morning. our natural sleep cycles and circadian rhythms coincide with our light exposure and having lights to keep us up late at night has totally ruined all of it.

Those are good points Jon.

I’ve found that using my bed only for sleeping instead of watching TV etc has made a huge difference in how fast I fall asleep and how well I rest through the night.

Check out this article/study
 
Sleep and metabolism
 
Sleep helps control our metabolism and energy balance. Surprised?
 
http://www.muscledog.com/blog/view/308/SLEEP_AND_METABOLISM#

good stuff, laura…no one can underestimate the power of SLEEP!

I need at least 7-8 hours of sleep every night!! i literally can not function without it..
 
Maybe i am just used to it but you dont what to talk to me when i am sleep deprived…
 
how many hours of sleep do you guys get?  

8 hours is coach and athlete head buts in the moring, 10 hours is laughs with coffee, 12 hours is flowers and carmel weights that you can eat with chocolate bars!!!!!!     lol   damn my mind is crazy

12 hours of sleep? are you serious!!
 
That would be a long night of partying the night before..
 
I wish i could sleep that long! plus the carmel weight you can eat chocolate off of is def. a winner for me

Check out his article on muscle dog about”
 
WHY YOU NEED MORE BEAUTY SLEEP!!
 
get beautiful PEOPLE!  read the article
 
http://muscledog.com/article/view/166/WHY_YOU_NEED_MORE_BEAUTY_SLEEP_PART_ONE.html#

here’s more back-up showing how lack of sleep can cause weight gain (article today on That’sfit.com)…

Earlier this year an Australian investigation found a cause and effect between sleep patterns and obesity among adolescents. And one large 2004 investigation done at Columbia University in New York is particularly compelling. There, researchers studied the sleeping habits of more than 18,000 people and found that those who get by on less than four hours of sleep a night were a whopping 73 percent more likely to be obese than people who slumber seven to nine hours nightly — and even those who caught six hours were 23 percent more likely to be obese. On the other hand, those who averaged 10 hours or more in the land of nod were 11 percent less likely to be obese.

Thats interesting, I would think that to much sleep would cause weight gain.  whats the perfered hours of sleep that “they” say we should get.  I hear it’s 8 hours.

 
That is really interesting…
 
I am sure lack of sleep raises cortisol levels and affect other hormonal functions in the body but….
 
Maybe those people are up late at night watching TV, drinking, and binge eating…
 
Think about all that free down time… When people are watching a movie they will grab a bag of chips and eat the whole thing without even realizing it…
 
In this case there are other factors besides sleep in my opinion…
 

for the general population, the benchmark is 7.5-8 hours, but this is just like any other answer you get where the real answer is “everyone is different and it depends”. as an elite athlete putting the type of stress on your body, you should probably actually be getting way more than that since you need the extra GH and recovery time. i would say 10-12 hours for you, but of course that might not actually work. you have to test it out and see what you work best on.

hey pete I started getting more sleep like you said and it seems to be helping my recovery a lot, thank you for the advise, eight hours was just not enough. 

 
What time do you wake up and go to bed to get more then 8 hours of sleep? 

I go to bed around ten, and wake up around 7:45 every morning.  Drink my coffee, listen to my rush, and then it’s game time.

no problem bro, anything i can do to help ;o)

pete It was good to see you the other day, even though I was upset from my training!  where do you work out at besides California strength?  we should go to your gym and put up some big squats, we will shut down the gym bro!  

 
 
You dont eat a big boy breakfast before game time?