No time to snooze: the athlete’s sleep paradox

Runners sleep before competing in the 2016 New York City Marathon in the Manhattan borough of New York City, NY. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

The emotional and cognitive effects of sleep loss and the impact on performance are well understood. Sleep loss can impair sustained attention and response speed⁽¹⁾. Emotionally, feelings of depression, anger, and anxiety increase with sleep deprivation^(2,3,4). Furthermore, the secretion of human growth hormone, necessary for physical health and performance, primarily occurs during sleep⁽¹⁾. Chronic sleep loss is also associated with diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease^(5,6,7).

Sleep deprivation can directly affect sports performance; for example, endurance athletes have noted increased perceived exertion due to a lack of sleep⁽⁸⁾. Sleep deprivation also impacts fine motor performance as accuracy in dart-throwing and tennis decreases^(9,10). In addition, athletes are more likely to report injuries when sleeping less than eight hours per night⁽¹¹⁾. However, the habits of athletes often fall short of the sleep recommendations. An individualized approach that considers an athlete’s perceived sleep needs is a novel but potentially more pragmatic approach to providing sleep recommendations⁽¹⁾.

Athlete Sleep Habits 

Even though sleep is vital to sports performance, there is a high prevalence of sleep inadequacy among athletes, with 50-78% of elite athletes experiencing routine sleep disturbance⁽¹⁾. Inadequate sleep is chronic sleep durations of less than 7 hours, sleep dissatisfaction, increased time to fall asleep, and daytime fatigue.

Risk Factors for Sleep Disturbance

Sleep disturbance is a multifactorial issue resulting from both sport and non-sport factors (see figure 1). Training loads are an interesting risk factor as athletes maximize biological and skill adaptations through greater training frequency. Overtraining results in a long-term decrease in performance and occurs if training loads are too high⁽¹²⁾. Physical activity is needed to improve sports performance, but performance gains may be lost when an athlete’s schedule infringes on their sleep.