IMG Academy, a multi-sport training and educational institution, agreed and signed to extend partnership with airweave holdings inc of Japan. Airweave will continuously supply students at IMG Academy with 50 mattresses every year until 2017.IMG Academy will continue helping the mattress brand to conduct its on-going sleep and performance study.
Recently, relationships between better sleep and better performance have been emphasized and recognized in various situations. Athletic performance is not an exception and managing sleep became a critical issue for top athletes.
In 2011, airweave began supplying IMG Academy with a number of its high-rebound mattresses to encourage better and more restorative sleep among student athletes and ultimately help them achieve optimal performance. By 2013, all dorm beds at the academy were furnished with airweave mattresses. To evaluate if airweave mattresses induce better sleep and better athletic performance, airweave initiated sponsored research with Stanford Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology Laboratory (led by Director Seiji Nishino, MD, PhD), which is currently in progress. The study evaluates the effects of different beddings on sleep and athletic performance, including statistical analysis to examine how various sleeping environments affect sleep, sleep-related physiology, and athletic performance across three quantitative measures (40-meter sprint, long jump, and star drill).
The Japanese company believes that better sleep may not only induce better performance but also prevents possible injuries and facilitate rehabilitation of athletes. Managing sleep is also of great interest to United States Olympians. The United States Olympic Committee has appointed airweave as its official mattress supplier to Team USA since the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, and airweave continues its support to US athletes to perform at their best at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics by providing special products specifically customized to fit each athlete’s body.
