Sleep Medicine Network
Respiratory-Related Sleep Disorders Section
Considering the recent Olympics, it is timely to review the importance of sleep for optimal athletic performance. When surveyed, 20% to 50% of athletes report poor or insufficient sleep, with consequences across four categories.1,2
Athletic performance: Objective measures of athletic performance, such as oxygen-carrying capacity during cardiopulmonary exercise and even sport-specific accuracy measures, like shooting percentage in basketball, have been shown to worsen with decreased sleep.
CHEST
Dr. Cassandra Mullen
Decision-making: Insufficient sleep can impact split-second decisions in competition. In a study of male soccer players, sleep restriction negatively impacted perceptual abilities and reaction time. Traveling across time zones also appears to degrade performance; NBA players’ free-throw shooting worsens when they are jet-lagged.
CHEST
Dr. Lauren Tobias
Recovery and injury prevention: Getting less than eight hours of sleep may increase one’s chances of injury during performance. Sleepiness and insomnia are both independent risk factors for developing a concussion in college athletes and outperform more intuitive risk factors such as a history of prior concussion or participating in a high-risk sport. Impaired sleep directly alters secretion of growth hormone, cortisol, and proinflammatory cytokines—all of which can hinder recovery.
Mental health: Over a third of elite athletes are estimated to experience a mental health problem. A clear bidirectional relationship exists between mental health and sleep health, with important implications not only for optimal competitive mindset but also longevity and success over one’s career.
Although much of clinical sleep medicine focuses on pathology, we can also help our patients reach their athletic goals by strategizing ways to prioritize and improve sleep.
References
1. Cook JD, Charest J. Sleep and performance in professional athletes. Curr Sleep Med Rep. 2023;9(1):56-81.
2. 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;15(1):41-57.