Traveling to away games and competitions can put some serious hurt on your sleep. This can lead to being drowsy, fatigue, moody, or lethargic. How do you get your body back to normal while keeping your busy schedule? Here are a few suggestions to getting your sleep on:

1. After the event or competition, allow your some extra sleep time. “The body can catch up on some sleep, but can not store sleep,” says Dr. Lisa Shives, President and Medical Director of Northshore Sleep Medicine in Chicago. 
2. When traveling, bring a mask to cover the eyes as well as your MP3 music player to play comforting music and drown out background noise and talk. A pillow will help put behind your head to sleep on the bus. But if the seat is uncomfortable, here is a unique suggestion from Dr. Shives: get a blow-up beach ball, place it in your lap, put a blanket over it, lean forward and sleep that way. 
3. Caffeine, which is in coffee, tea, and chocolate can help you stay awake as well. However, eat and drink with caution as too much can cause insomnia. Dr. Shives advises against energy drinks and soda because of the chemicals and sugars in them. She also does not recommend taking alert pills such as No-Doz which are just caffeine.

“Sleep needs to be as big a priority as your other commitments,” says Dr. Shives. “Without enough quality sleep, you will not perform your best.”