Sleep well! Sleep and its value for athletes

Contemporary medical and training monitoring of athletes has paid increased attention to the importance of sleep and its essential role in terms of:

1. Sports performance
2. Intellectual performance and cognitive function
3. Mental well-being
4. Physical health and functionality
5. Preventing injuries, improving recovery and speeding up recovery

However, evidence indicate that athletes tend to sleep on average less hours and to have poorer quality compared to non-athletes¹, probably due to time and physical demands. High-performance athletes, particularly adolescents and young adults, are regularly exposed to greater physical, psychological and neuromuscular stressors that require a delicate balance of recovery, including adequate sleep². Recently, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) examined for the first time the sleep as a key factor contributing to athletic performance and as a fundamental feature of athletes’ mental health (Reardon & al., 2019). The evaluation concerns:

1. Adequacy of duration (i.e., at least 7 hours for adults and 8 hours for adolescents)
2. Alignment with circadian rhythms
3. Good sleep quality perceived by the person
4. Absence of sleep disorders (including insomnia and sleep apnea)

Sleep is considered a fundamental component for optimizing performance among elite athletes. Good sleep hygiene that includes adequate duration, quality, and consistency appears to be a determinant of health, performance, adaptation, rehabilitation and injury prevention. It has been shown that adolescents with less than 8 hours of sleep per night are more likely to suffer an injury (Von Rosen, Frohm, Friden & Heijne, 2017). Sleep problems can also increase the risk of concussion.

Poor quality and loss of sleep can impair muscle strength, speed, and other aspects of physical performance such as reaction time, accuracy, submaximal strength, and endurance. Specifically, there appears to be an effect on sprint times, tennis serve accuracy, swimming strokes, kicking efficiency and shot accuracy.

Cognitive performance is also affected by sleep in several areas, including alertness, learning, memory, and creativity. In conditions of lack of quality sleep, judgment and decision-making suffer. Sleep also plays an important role in mental health, which is important not only for athletic performance, but also for the well-being and mood of athletes in general.

Strategies for athletes’ better sleep

It is, therefore, considered necessary to promote sleep health, as the goal of sports programs. Sports organizations should incorporate evidence-based education at the individual, team, and system level that includes best sleep practices, the role of sleep in athletic and cognitive performance, and strategies to address sleep problems. Read sleep improvement tips here.

Systematic screening and regular evaluation to detect sleep difficulties and disorders in athletes is of major importance. The contribution of sports performance recording devices, such as smartwatches that record adequacy and consistency of sleep, can be of significant importance. Treating sleep disorders, once identified, with controlled interventions has a positive effect on physical strength, speed, cognitive performance, reaction time, and mental health.

Daily restorative naps are a common strategy that can reduce sleep debt, improve short-term memory, alertness, and accuracy during reaction time tests, and it is not a bad idea to incorporate them when necessary.

“Sleep banking”, meaning extending sleep before a sporting event, is a new concept that can also improve performance.

Finally, it is beneficial to manage training programs when traveling. The frequency of early morning and/or evening workouts can reduce sleep duration, resulting in acute and cumulative sleep deprivation. Additional studies have shown that between 50% and 80% of all athletes experience poor sleep quality during periods of heavy training and especially the nights before and after competition. Traveling across time zones for matches can have negative effects on circadian rhythms. In general, it is wise to allow at least 1 day of rest for each time zone crossed to fully resolve jet lag symptoms.

Official position statements regarding sleep health are published by the NCAA and the IOC (Kroshus et al., 2019; Reardon et al ., 2019).

1. Charest J, Grandner MA. Sleep and Athletic Performance: Impacts on Physical Performance, Mental Performance, Injury Risk and Recovery, and Mental Health. Sleep Med Clin. 2020 Mar;15(1):41-57. doi: 10.1016/j.jsmc.2019.11.005. PMID: 32005349; PMCID: PMC9960533.
2. Pujalte, George G.A. MD, FACSM1; Benjamin, Holly J. MD, FACSM2. Sleep and the Athlete. Current Sports Medicine Reports 17(4):p 109-110, April 2018. | DOI: 10.1249/JSR.0000000000000468
3. Creado SA, Advani S. Sleep Disorders in the Athlete. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2021 Sep;44(3):393-403. doi: 10.1016/j.psc.2021.04.010. Epub 2021 Jun 16. PMID: 34372996.
4. Vitale KC, Owens R, Hopkins SR, Malhotra A. Sleep Hygiene for Optimizing Recovery in Athletes: Review and Recommendations. Int J Sports Med. 2019 Aug;40(8):535-543. doi: 10.1055/a-0905-3103. Epub 2019 Jul 9. PMID: 31288293; PMCID: PMC6988893.

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