TORONTO — The final weekend of Toronto Pan Am 2015 will feature Canadians in several memorable events, but perhaps none more sweet than in competitive sleeping, where Canada stands a good chance to snooze out of the Scarborough Nocturna Centre with several more golds.
“We’re overjoyed that our training has paid off,” says David Minderhoff, who, at 19, could be Canada’s youngest and best hope for a gold in the men’s open chair. “These last years of work, putting in the extra sleep really has made the difference in front of the home crowd.”
Minderhoff is one of the wunderkinds of Sleep Canada’s new identification and training program. After being completely shut out of medal contention in Guadalajara 2011, Canadian officials began scouring college classrooms, offices and even electronic music events to identify people with elite-level sleeping abilities.
Hailing from Fort Erie, ON, Minderhoff was ‘discovered’ in a first-year seminar at University of Toronto. With only 13 classmates, Minderhoff was able to sleep in plain sight even amid active discussion.
“He’s uncanny, and extremely focused,” says team trainer Doris Close. “David has the unique ability to enter REM almost at will, eyes open or closed, full sun or darkness. The fact that he could sleep undetected amid a close-contact seminar indicated that he was already in the in the top 1%, and that was before he started intense training.”
Minderhoff and the rest of the Canadian sleep team have benefitted from access to world-class sleep facilities and a literally round-the-clock training effort in preparation for the Toronto 2015. Innovative crowd-noise techniques, circular breathing, and split-time power nap training have vaulted the Canadian program into the vanguard of competitive sleeping, possibly for years to come.
And Minderhoff isn’t the only young talent aboard this youthful Canadian squad. Twenty-two-year-old Chi-En Lee from Vancouver is poised to be an inaugural gold medalist in women’s Sleeptathlon.
Making its Pan Am debut at Toronto 2015, following the event’s introduction at the World Sleep Championships just two years ago, Sleeptathlon nap-letes compete in five different regular events: work desk, transit bus, movie theater, standing wall and concert stadium in addition to a sixth randomly chosen event revealed to the contestants just minutes before the competition.
“The random event is exciting for fans,” says Lee, “but it’s nerve-wracking for us.” Still, Lee managed impressive numbers at sleep nationals, winning the Taxi sleep random round by a margin of 18.5 points. She will face stiff competition from U.S. champion Brandee Swallow, who won the world event two years ago with a steely finish in the random round which featured a Crowdsurfing sleep challenge.
“Our sport has grown so much since the 90s. We’re glad it’s back at Pan Am and here to stay. Fans recognize it’s just not about endurance sleeping anymore,” says Close, alluding to the scandals that rocked the sleeping world in the late 90s. Allegations of widespread doping and sleep deprivation brought the sport to its brink and, after the death of two Ukranian nap-letes at the 1999 World Championships, Pan Am organizers cancelled sleeping events at the 2001 competition. The IOC subsequently took sleeping out of contention for inclusion in the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
“It’s been an uphill battle ever since,” says Graeme Spall, Canada’s most decorated sleeper, who set back-to-back endurance sleeping records in the late 90s and hoped to compete for an Olympic gold. “We had worked tirefully for greater recognition for decades and then it all blew up.”
Several team Canada members cite the efforts of Spall and others in letting go of the old sleep habits and ushering a new era of competitive sleeping. “Graeme inspired an entire generation of Canadians,” says Minderhoff, his eyes welling with emotion “his Sleep Across Canada tour in the 90s changed me, and now he’s courageously changed with the sport to make room for sleep champions from many disciplines.”
“The X-games-like atmosphere is definitely new for us old-timers,” says Spall of the chanting crowds and deafening music played straight through competitions. “In my time the crowds were hushed, quieter than golf. But the sport has to grow and change to attract a younger audience.”
That younger audience has been filling the stands at the Scarborough Nocturna Centre and will be on hand to cheer on Canadian nap-letes to a nearly assured victory in the team event. “The youth interest in our sport is phenomenal,” says Close. “The IOC can’t keep its eyes shut on this one. Competitive sleeping will be in the Olympics. You can count your sheep on it.”
Indeed, the IOC has indicated it might be willing to consider adding sleeping as early as the to the 2024 games, which might help Toronto secure a bid since the Nocturna Centre is already the world’s premiere sleep venue.
When asked which event might be ushered out of the Olympics to make room for sleeping, Sleep Canada officials are tight-lipped, but veterans such as Spall never mince words. “Equestrian, definitely,” he says. “It’s as boring as sleeping in a regular bed.”