Recovery – How Your Sports Performance Will Benefit from a Good Night’s Sleep
In elite sport recovery is as important as training, and should be integrated within the total training and competition regimen. Not only is recovery a time when the body rebuilds its resources, it also has an important psychological benefit. Too little rest can lead to overtraining, reduced performance, and to burnout.
While this is now generally understood, what is often less appreciated is the role of sleep in sports recovery. There are several stages to achieving optimal recovery. These include immediate recovery between exercise, short term recovery between repetitions, and recovery between training sessions; sleep plays a major role in the last of these.
Sleep and Sports Performance
Despite the huge amount of research that has been carried out on sleep, we still don’t fully understand its real function. We do, however, know that sleep is vital in order to maintain our cognitive and physiological functions. Loss of sleep is a common experience, especially at times when it seems that we need sleep the most, for instance before important events, and this applies to athletes as much as it does to anyone else. It isn’t at all unusual for even elite athletes to lose sleep prior to an important competitive event, and a potential consequence of this is an adverse impact on their athletic performance.
In one study involving elite Australian athletes (Juliff, Halson, & Peiffer, 2015) 64% of athletes reported worse sleep during nights prior to an important competition with the main sleep problem being falling asleep (82%), mainly due to thinking about the competition (83.5%) and nervousness (43.8%).
While loss of performance as a result of sleep loss has been reported widely, there is a dearth of information regarding the extent of the effect and the mechanisms behind it. While maximal muscle strength does not seem to be adversely affected by sleep deprivation, it does seem, however, that the balance of the autonomic nervous system is susceptible to the sleep quantity and quality and that this leads to symptoms typical of the overtraining syndrome.
Sleep loss also increases cytokines which can cause inflammation and compromise the immune system. Furthermore, sleep loss frequently results in a reduced accuracy in cognitive performance. There is unequivocal evidence that sleep loss has “negative consequences for athletes requiring high neurocognitive reliance” (Fullagar, et al., 2015).
Sleep patterns of elite athletes are heavily influenced by training stimuli as well as internal and external factors (Kolling, Ferrauti, Pfeiffer, Meyer, & Kellmann, 2016). External and subjective studies indicate that overall sleep quality amongst athletes tends to be poor, and typically average seven hours. In some sports athletes tend to have even less sleep than that. Given their heavy training loads, even seven hours is suboptimal for adequate recovery to take place. To achieve optimal recovery, adequate sleep is vital. In general athletes don’t have adequate sleep patterns, nor are they aware of the importance of proper sleep to their performance.
How athletes can improve sleep patterns
Elite soccer players are particularly vulnerable to sleep interference. Night matches, requiring to perform demanding mental tasks late at night, consuming caffeine and alcohol in the evening, taking daytime naps, irregular sleep and wake times, all contribute to sleep deprivation (Nédélec, Halson, Delecroix, Abaidia, & Ahmaidi, 2015). The authors have developed a sleep hygiene policy specifically addressing the needs of elite soccer players which includes:
• Consistent sleep pattern
• Appropriate napping
• Maintaining the natural light dark cycle
• Red light treatment prior to sleep/
o Dawn simulation prior to waking
o Prevention of cycle disruption
• Filtering short wavelengths prior to sleep
• For conditions of high stress:
o Brainwave entrainment
o Meditation
• Nutrition – just prior to sleep consume:
o High-electrolyte fluids
o Milk
o High-glycemic index carbohydrates
o Certain proteins
o Tart cherry juice concentrate
o Tryptophan (with the additional benefits of rehydration, substrate stores replenishment, and muscle-damage repair)
• Cold water immersion prior to bedtime may help
Although developed specifically for elite soccer players, a similar strategy would appear to be beneficial for all kinds of athletes.
Finally
A good night’s sleep can hugely benefit your sports performance. It is when you fully recover and the various processes that occur during sleep prepare you for the next day of competition or training.
The irony is that staying awake worrying about your forthcoming event is likely to affect your performance, so try some of our tricks listed above to ensure that you sleep soundly.
Need more information? Why not contact us using the form below and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Fullagar, H., Skorski, S., Duffield, R., Hammes, D., Coutts, A., & Meyer, T. (2015). Sleep and Athletic Performance: The Effects of Sleep Loss on Exercise Performance, and Physiological and Cognitive Responses to Exercise. Sports Medicine, 161-186.
Juliff, L., Halson, S., & Peiffer, J. (2015). Understanding sleep disturbance in athletes prior to important competitions. Sports Medicine Australia., 13–18 .
Kolling, S., Ferrauti, A., Pfeiffer, M., Meyer, T., & Kellmann, M. (2016). Sleep in Sports: A Short Summary of Alterations in Sleep/Wake Patterns and the Effects of Sleep Loss and Jet Lag. DEUTSCHE ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SPORTMEDIZIN, 35-38.
Nédélec, M., Halson, S., Delecroix, B., Abaidia, A., & Ahmaidi, S. (2015). Sleep Hygiene and Recovery Strategies in Elite Soccer Players. Sports Medicine, 1547-1559.
