Why is Sleep Important?

Sleep is incredibly important, no matter your age. One huge benefit of sleep is recovery from physical activity, from Marshall and Turner (2016), which is encouraged via substances called hormones. Hormones are chemical messengers in our bodies that help control our organs. One hormone, melatonin, regulates the circadian rhythm, influencing when and how long we sleep and are awake. Melatonin also helps support the immune system and leads to the release of other important hormones. During deep sleep, growth hormones and sex hormones are released. These hormones are important for muscle building and repair as well as bone growth. Deeper sleep also leads to higher rates of blood flow, which helps with injury recovery [1].

How Does Sleep Impact Sports Performance?

Shooting a basketball, throwing a football, swinging a tennis racket—what do these things have in common? Skill! Sports require a lot of skill and sometimes precision, which normally takes a lot of focus and brain power. Examples of precision include hitting a bullseye in archery and sinking a putt in golf. Skills that involve a connection between wrist muscles, hand muscles, and the brain are called fine motor skills. Some examples of everyday fine motor skills include writing with a pen or pencil or typing on a keyboard (Figure 1). Examples of fine motor skills in sports include performing a put in golf, controlling a soccer ball with a delicate touch, and holding a baseball bat correctly. Sleep can affect fine motor skills, and a good night’s rest can actually enhance fine motor skills [2].

Sleep is so important that it can affect your performance in sports and can even affect your chances of winning. Athletes who reported a good night’s sleep placed higher in a tournament than athletes who reported a poor night’s sleep [3]. The problem with sleeping and sports is that the nervousness many athletes feel before high-level competitions makes it harder for some athletes to sleep. In a study about pre-competition sleeping, 70 percent of participants reported low-quality sleep [3] the night before the competition compared to a normal night.

A good night’s sleep can also increase accuracy. College basketball players, who increased their sleep from 6.6 to 8.5 h, showed an increase in three-point and free-throw accuracy by 9 percent [4]. These examples show the importance of sleep for competition and how it can affect performance, but sleep can also affect injury. To be able to play sports regularly, it is important to avoid and prevent injuries. Sleep and preventing injury go hand in hand—less sleep increases the potential for injury (Figure 2) and results in a slower recovery time.

Finally, sleep can also improve learning ability. Learning ability is important for sports because memorizing plays or new moves is a part of almost every sport. You probably know that it is also important to have a rested mind for learning in school!

How Much Sleep is Recommended?

Now you know that getting the required amount of sleep each night helps with performance, injury recovery, injury prevention, and learning ability [6]. The recommended amount of sleep for adults is different from the recommended amount of sleep for adolescents and children. Adolescents and children need more sleep, around 8–10 h per night, for growth and rest. Adults need less sleep—only around 7–9 h a night [3]. According to sports medicine reports, accumulated sleep debt throughout the school week leads to worse reaction times by the end of the week. Sleep debt is the hours you owe your body if you do not get the required hours of sleep every night (Figure 3). So, if you need 8 h a night and you only get 7 h, you are 1 h in sleep debt [4]. Naps or sleeping longer can help recover sleep debt. Recovering sleep debt is important to keeping sports performance at an all-time high.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you now understand the important role that sleep plays in our overall health and athletic performance. It helps with recovery by using our hormones, improving our fine motor skill control, increasing precision, and decreasing the risk of injury. Athletes, both children and adults, benefit from quality sleep as it promotes muscle repair, learning ability, and overall performance. However, despite these facts, many athletes struggle with pre-competition sleep due to anxiety and nerves. Future research could focus on ways to manage pre-competition anxiety and develop personalized sleep routines based on individuals’ needs and their sport’s demands.

For young athletes, it can be tough getting the right amount of sleep, but some tips include having a consistent bedtime, limiting screen time at least an hour before bedtime, and creating a regular nighttime routine. By sleeping the recommended hours, young athletes can recover better, stay healthy, and perform at their highest level.

Glossary

Recovery: ↑ A return to a healthy state.

Hormones: ↑ Chemicals in the body that can do a wide variety of important functions.

Melatonin: ↑ A hormone released by the brain that helps you fall asleep.

Circadian Rhythm: ↑ The body’s 24-hour internal clock that controls cycles of awakeness and sleep.

Fine Motor Skills: ↑ Skills that use tiny muscles in our hands and feet to ensure precision.

Sleep Debt: ↑ The amount of sleep we owe our bodies to reach the required nightly hours.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.