Advice on Helping Your Athletes Get Better Sleep

As Athletic Trainers, we know you know the importance of sleep. However, we also wanted to provide you with some details that you can pass along to your students to help them improve athletic performance.

While sleep can often be overlooked by young people, it is as crucial as training, nutrition, and hydration for overall health and even how well they do in their sport.

Amy Rantala, M.D., a sports medicine physician at Mayo Clinic Health System, emphasizes its importance:

"When you sleep, your brain processes daily information, assimilating new skills or techniques into your sports performance."

Physical restoration during sleep is vital. It allows their bodies to repair wear and tear from exertion, reducing injury risk and bolstering the immune system.

Studies reveal that insufficient sleep in collegiate athletes leads to decreased reaction times and accuracy. For instance:

Basketball players can experience up to a 50% drop in accuracy when sleep-deprived, whereas adequate sleep can boost accuracy by 10%.

Moreover, sleep is instrumental in mental health and resilience. Recognizing this, the NCAA has incorporated sleep screening into their best practices to identify issues like insomnia and sleep apnea.

So, how much sleep is necessary? It does varies by age:

• Children (6-12 years): 9-12 hours
• Teens (13-18 years): 8-10 hours
• Adults (over 18 years): 7+ hours

As we're all probably aware, teen athletes face challenges in achieving optimal sleep due to training, game schedules, school, work, and social obligations. Rantala added: 

"Teens naturally stay up later and sleep in, disrupting their circadian rhythm and impacting their physical and mental health."

To help promote better sleep for your athletes, have them establish a bedtime routine:

• Avoid intense exercise or large meals before bedtime
• Ensure a sleep-friendly environment: quiet, dark, and cool
• Maintain consistent sleep and wake times
• Dedicate 20-30 minutes to wind down, avoiding electronics

If their sleep difficulties persist, stress management and a strong support network are crucial. You might ask your athletes to consider counseling or cognitive behavioral therapy — there are services available out there. but these may not be practical.

You could also have them practice mindfulness or meditation. There are videos online and apps that might help with these practices.

Let them know that developing good sleep routines is very similar to their training – it requires developing new habits but offers immediate and lifelong benefits.

Also... make sure you get plenty of sleep, too!