Better Sleep Case Study: Kelly Simm, Great Britain gymnast

It’s been an exciting few years for Kelly Simm. Having twice won gold for England at the Commonwealth Games, she also helped Great Britain claim their first World Championship team meal in Glasgow in 2015. Kelly started her gymnastics career at just six years old, and by sixteen, she’d made it to a GB team. 

Having recently announced her retirement from the sport, we caught up with Kelly as she placed her order for her new Mammoth Altitude mattress at Peter Green Furnishers. We wanted to find out what it takes to compete on the global stage, and how important sleep is for sporting success.

A good night’s rest is an essential part of optimum performance, according to Kelly. Luckily, she’d never found getting to sleep too much of a challenge.

“I’ve always needed more sleep than most. Some people can perform on less sleep, but I’ve always been on the other end. When you’re younger, you’ve got so much energy so it’s not as bad, but as you get older you really notice the difference when you don’t sleep well.

“I normally aim for eight to nine hours per night. Thankfully, I can sleep anywhere. From a young age I’ve travelled a lot, so I’ve learned to adapt quickly.”

Still, Kelly has her preferences when it comes to a sleep environment, saying:

“I like it to be dark, and I’ll use earplugs if it’s noisy. Planning is very important, so I’ll work backwards: what time is my training? So what time do I need to wake up? So what time do I need to go to bed to get the sleep I need. Being organised with a sleep schedule is vital for me.

“When I was training and studying, I would often be training until late and then catching up on work right up until I went to bed. I could be working in bed and then was usually able to go straight to sleep, but ideally I’d try to have a bit of time to unwind before.”

Avoiding injury and advising new gymnasts

Kelly recently underwent surgery after suffering an injury in 2023. She knows all to well the impact pain can have on your ability to rest, making recovery even harder. But the right bed can make all the difference.

“Sleep has been a vital part of my recovery. When you sleep on a good quality, supportive mattress, the difference is obvious. Even when travelling, you experience a lot of different beds and mattresses, and when you’re already sore and tired from training, you don’t want a bad mattress to make things worse.”

Now retired, Kelly is still figuring out what her next steps will be. But she’s anything but idle, dedicating her time to helping the next generation of gymnasts navigate their way through the sport.

“I’m doing speaking events in schools, gymnastics clubs, and businesses. I’m also doing some athlete support and lifestyle work at my previous university, helping scholarship athletes manage their dual careers. I’ve gone from a structured training regime to a sporadic schedule where every day is different. It’s a lot of fun.”

Within her teaching, Kelly is reminding new gymnasts that failure is part of the course, shifting the conversation from medals to mental wellbeing.

“Every single athlete has tough times. You might not perform as well as you’d like, or you may suffer an injury that takes you away from the sport for a significant amount of time. People outside the sport can sometimes think it’s all success and medals, but a lot of your career can be tough times and tough training.

“I like to highlight that this is normal, and it shouldn’t stop you from persevering and working hard for your goals. It doesn’t matter how long it takes to achieve the something, and you might not achieve everything you want to, but it’s important to work as hard as you can to overcome those obstacles and see how far you can get! It’s a great life lesson you learn through sport. 

“It’s common in gymnastics to see talented youngsters start winning straight out the gate, but as you get older, you can’t rely on talent alone. That’s where the hard work begins.

“Gymnastics is very physical, but once you learn the skills, it becomes more mental. If you wake up tired, it’s so much harder to push yourself mentally. A hard session becomes so much harder when you’re tired!”

Going for gold: Olympics 2024

Kelly’s retirement comes at the price of missing out on the Olympics later this year, but she’ll still be tuning in and cheering the GB team on.

“It’s going to be weird watching it on TV. I’ll be nervous for the girls, because they’re still close friends, but I’m so excited to watch them. British gymnastics has been on the rise, and the team are hungry for medals. I’ve got my fingers crossed for them.”

Kelly Simm ordered a Mammoth Altitude Aura Luxe from Peter Green in Eastleigh. You can keep up to date with Kelly on her Instagram, just click here.