In the past few years, there has been more focus on how important sleep is for mental health, physical success, and cognitive function. These studies look at a wide range of athletes, from Olympians and professionals to players recruited to national and varsity teams.

Numerous athletes continue to need more sleep despite their significant efforts. Athletes usually sleep less than people who don’t play sports.

Why is it Important for Athletes to Sleep?

Sleep is important for everyone’s health and well-being, not just sports. It helps everyone feel better and do their best. 

  • Giving your heart a break lets cells and muscles heal, which might help your body heal after working out. During the night, your heart rate and breathing change as you go through the stages of sleep, which is good for your heart health.
  • Avoid getting sick or helping you get better after getting sick. Cytokines are hormones that stimulate the immune system to fight off infections. Your body produces cytokines while you are sleeping.
  • All of these healing benefits are important for players to get better and do well.

Why Sleep is Good for Athletes’ Minds

Everyone needs sleep to keep and strengthen memories. Sleep helps players remember what they’ve learned or practised, which leads to better success in the future. The parts of your brain that help you learn and remember things can’t be made or kept up without sleep.

Sleep is also important for processing information in the brain. Cognitive function goes down when you don’t get enough sleep. For players whose games require a lot of mental skills, like making decisions and adjusting to new situations, this could be not good. 

Also, sleep is important for athletes to keep their mental health in good shape, just like exercise can help improve or maintain mental health. Getting enough good sleep is generally linked to feeling better. It keeps you from getting irritable and lowers your risk of health problems like sadness.

How Does Lack of Sleep Affect Athletic Performance?

  • Athletes can improve their performance in various areas related to the demands of their sport by increasing the quantity and quality of their sleep. Stanford men’s basketball players who slept an extra 10 hours a night experienced several good things. 
  • They ran faster in both full-court and half-court runs. Their free-throw and three-point shooting improved by at least 9%. The players also said that their mental and physical health had improved.
  • Sleeping 10 hours a night helped both male and female swimmers do better in many ways. It took less time to react to flying blocks, more time to turn, and more power in the kicks. The times I swam a 15-meter dash got faster, too. In addition, these players’ moods improved, and they felt less tired and sleepy during the day.
  • It was also better for both male and female varsity tennis players who slept at least nine hours a week. The players’ serves became much more accurate, going from about 36% to almost 42%. Additionally, the players felt less sleepy.
  • Other research with female netball players and male soccer players has shown that teaching athletes good sleep habits helps them sleep longer overall. Getting enough sleep before a game is likely to help people do their best.

Sleep Deprivation Impacts Athletic Performance

Not getting enough or good quality sleep can make anyone feel bad in a number of ways. Getting enough sleep makes it easier to think straight and act quickly. Lack of sleep makes people more likely to make bad choices and take risks. Being irritable and at a higher risk for worry and sadness are also linked to not getting enough sleep. Physically, not getting enough sleep raises the chance of many health problems, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.

While getting enough good sleep can help you do better in sports, you need more sleep to improve your performance. There are a lot of problems that can happen when players don’t get enough sleep:

  • Limited ability. A study of male athletes who played team sports but didn’t get enough sleep found that average and total speed times went down.
  • Less accurate results. Tennis players, both male and female, were up to 53% less accurate with their serves after not getting enough sleep compared to when they got enough sleep.
  • They are more quickly worn out. A study of male runners and volleyball players found that both groups of athletes were more tired after not getting enough sleep.
  • Reaction time got slower. A group of male college players who were studied found that not getting enough sleep made their reaction times slower.
  • Need help learning and making decisions. The ability to make decisions is affected by not getting enough sleep. It may be too late or too hard to decide whether to pass the ball or take it to the net yourself.
  • Possible harm. A study of middle school and high school players found that not getting enough sleep on a regular basis is linked to a higher risk of injury.
  • There is a risk of getting sick or having your immune system weaken. People who don’t get enough sleep are more likely to get sick, such as with the common cold.

Tips for Athletes on Good Sleep Hygiene

Getting good sleep habits is important for everyone. Some of the most common parts are:

  • Setting up the right conditions for sleep. The place where you sleep should be cool, dark, and quiet. The place where you sleep should only be used for sleep and sex.
  • Stay away from coffee and drinks before bed. These drinks can keep you from falling asleep or make it harder to fall asleep.
  • Do not use gadgets for a few hours before going to bed. TVs, cell phones, and computers are all in this group. These gadgets give off blue light that can mess with your circadian cycle.
  • Set up a way to relax. Reading, taking a bath, or relaxing are all good ways to calm down and get ready for bed.
  • If you still can’t fall asleep after 20 minutes, get out of bed and do something quiet somewhere else until you want to go to sleep.
  • Besides these good sleep habits, these other habits are especially important for athletes:
  • Refrain from overtraining. Make sure you stick to a regular training plan to avoid getting too tired.
  • Refrain from training or competing too early or too late. These things can impact the amount and quality of sleep you get, especially if your sports routine isn’t stable.
  • If you do take a nap, make sure it’s short. You shouldn’t nap for more than an hour, and you shouldn’t take one after 3 p.m.
  • Get rid of things that cause stress. Mental stresses make it harder to sleep and to do well in general.

5 Things You Can Do to Sleep Better:

  1. Set up a comfortable place to sleep with few outside distractions.
  1. Refrain from overtraining.
  1. Take short naps during the day if you need to.
  1. Lessen the number of lessons or events that happen early or late in the day.
  1. Lessen the things that stress you out and make it hard to sleep.

Final Thoughts

Getting enough sleep or getting bad sleep can make it easier to be strong, fast, and do other physical activities. Problems with sleep can also make you more likely to get concussions and other injuries and make it harder to heal from injuries. Several areas of cognitive ability are also affected, such as alertness, learning and remembering, making decisions, and being creative. 

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