University of Richmond Athletics
Men’s Lacrosse Alum Cole Kissick ’19 Brings Dream Recovery To Spider Athletics
12/05/2023 | General, Men's Lacrosse, Spider Performance
Richmond, Va. – Playing midfield for the University of Richmond men's lacrosse team from 2016-2019, former captain and business administration major Cole Kissick '19 was concerned with his on-field stats as well as his grades during his time at UR.
Today, though, there's new numbers on his mind; biometric data points, especially those associated with sleep.
Kissick, along with brother Jake and business partner Todd Anderson, are the founders of Dream Recovery, a company whose goal is to improve the athlete's recovery time and overall well-being through the science of sleep.
Their products currently include over-eye sleep masks, mouth tape that promotes breathing through the nose and a performance pillowcase made of high-grade silk that helps remedy aging and acne while fighting off bacteria.
The older Kissick, Jake, who played college lacrosse at Siena, returned from his honeymoon with an eye mask and began wearing it regularly after noticing improved sleep metrics gathered by his WHOOP, a wearable fitness tracker that measures strain, recovery and sleep habits and patterns.
"My brother called me and said I needed to start wearing a sleep mask," said Kissick, who admits he initially laughed at the idea– noting that sleep masks were often portrayed as something out of movies, often associated with pampering oneself and more times than not, pink and fluffy.
Both historically light sleepers with an interest in human performance and recovery, the brothers began wearing the masks regularly and saw improvements in recovery and overall well-being.
"After I started wearing one I asked myself 'where was this when I was in school?'" as he recalled long bus trips to Jacksonville or the communal, often chaotic living enviropnment of student dorms.
From there, the brothers teamed up with Anderson, a former Michigan State football walk-on who had a stint in the National Football League with the Rams when they were based in St. Louis, and Dream Recovery was created.
On Monday, Kissick returned to the University of Richmond with Anderson to talk to a group of student-athletes, coaches and athletics department staff about the benefits of good sleep hygiene. The pair shared their backgrounds and gave a thorough explanation of the science behind sleep and how simple remedies can make big improvements in one's life.
After the discussion, those in attendance left with Dream Recovery sleep masks to try out for themselves.
Especially at Richmond, student-athletes are expected to perform at the highest levels both in the classroom and on the playing surface. Pair that with the demands associated with going to class, studying, mandatory lifts, practices, study halls and games, and it can become a lot to balance.
Often time, it's sleep that takes the biggest hit.
"Having one thing you can control, especially something as important as sleep, is huge," Kissick said. "Getting your sleep dialed in and tightened up with a few easy fixes is a no-brainer."
Noting that he's always had an entrepreneurship background that was then spring boarded by his education at Richmond's Robins School of Business, Kissick said it "Just made sense" to create Dream Recovery along with his brother and Anderson.
"Being back here to share with the current student-athletes is super cool for me and I'm pumped about it. It's really come full circle for me to be able to be back here," he added.
Kissick's return to campus came as the fall semester's final iteration of Spider Performance and Development's Lunch and Learn Series. The Lunch and Learn series was designed to provide in-depth conversations on topics critical to well-being, performance and success.
Topics discussed during the series have included nutrition, overuse injury prevention and strength and conditioning performance analytics.
Today, though, there's new numbers on his mind; biometric data points, especially those associated with sleep.
Kissick, along with brother Jake and business partner Todd Anderson, are the founders of Dream Recovery, a company whose goal is to improve the athlete's recovery time and overall well-being through the science of sleep.
Their products currently include over-eye sleep masks, mouth tape that promotes breathing through the nose and a performance pillowcase made of high-grade silk that helps remedy aging and acne while fighting off bacteria.
The older Kissick, Jake, who played college lacrosse at Siena, returned from his honeymoon with an eye mask and began wearing it regularly after noticing improved sleep metrics gathered by his WHOOP, a wearable fitness tracker that measures strain, recovery and sleep habits and patterns.
"My brother called me and said I needed to start wearing a sleep mask," said Kissick, who admits he initially laughed at the idea– noting that sleep masks were often portrayed as something out of movies, often associated with pampering oneself and more times than not, pink and fluffy.
Both historically light sleepers with an interest in human performance and recovery, the brothers began wearing the masks regularly and saw improvements in recovery and overall well-being.
"After I started wearing one I asked myself 'where was this when I was in school?'" as he recalled long bus trips to Jacksonville or the communal, often chaotic living enviropnment of student dorms.
From there, the brothers teamed up with Anderson, a former Michigan State football walk-on who had a stint in the National Football League with the Rams when they were based in St. Louis, and Dream Recovery was created.
On Monday, Kissick returned to the University of Richmond with Anderson to talk to a group of student-athletes, coaches and athletics department staff about the benefits of good sleep hygiene. The pair shared their backgrounds and gave a thorough explanation of the science behind sleep and how simple remedies can make big improvements in one's life.
After the discussion, those in attendance left with Dream Recovery sleep masks to try out for themselves.
Especially at Richmond, student-athletes are expected to perform at the highest levels both in the classroom and on the playing surface. Pair that with the demands associated with going to class, studying, mandatory lifts, practices, study halls and games, and it can become a lot to balance.
Often time, it's sleep that takes the biggest hit.
"Having one thing you can control, especially something as important as sleep, is huge," Kissick said. "Getting your sleep dialed in and tightened up with a few easy fixes is a no-brainer."
Noting that he's always had an entrepreneurship background that was then spring boarded by his education at Richmond's Robins School of Business, Kissick said it "Just made sense" to create Dream Recovery along with his brother and Anderson.
"Being back here to share with the current student-athletes is super cool for me and I'm pumped about it. It's really come full circle for me to be able to be back here," he added.
Kissick's return to campus came as the fall semester's final iteration of Spider Performance and Development's Lunch and Learn Series. The Lunch and Learn series was designed to provide in-depth conversations on topics critical to well-being, performance and success.
Topics discussed during the series have included nutrition, overuse injury prevention and strength and conditioning performance analytics.
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