A scientific understanding of the benefits of sleep
The importance of sleep in helping us perform to our best is something that we have accepted despite the lack of an in-depth scientific understanding; but this is something that is changing with the recent publication of research on the area. The benefit of sleep and recovery for an elite athlete is an issue we have dealt with on a number of occasions, and a 2017 study has helped provide a more scientific explanation of why it is so important. Getting sufficient sleep is essential in order to function successfully in any walk of life, but in the area of sport it has huge significance. When millimeters and fractions of seconds can be the difference between success and failure, athletes and coaches are always looking for ways to improve, and there is no doubt that sleep can play a significant role. One of the problems in analyzing the issue of sleep is that although its importance is universally accepted, there is a difficulty in understanding precisely what is happening during the process and how exactly it benefits us.
Benefits of sleep
What we do know is that sleep is needed to conduct the basic functions of life no matter what your role or occupation, so naturally, for an athlete it becomes even more important to get adequate sleep. The benefits include
- reduced injury rates
- improved reaction times
- faster sprint times
- extended careers
- fewer mental errors and
- better accuracy
While these benefits are generally accepted, the difficulty is that in a world where we like to see scientific evidence in relation to every aspect of our lives, sleep is one of those grey areas where it is difficult to come up with accurate data. Among the reasons for this are the different sleep requirements by individuals, and the difficulty in measuring its effectiveness.
Report explains how sleep keeps your brain healthy
As a result, a recent study by Chiara Cirelli and Giulio Tononi of the Wisconsin Center for Sleep and Consciousness is of great interest to those seeking to explain the benefits of sleep as it provides a scientific basis for understanding the benefits. The findings of the four-year study are outlined in How the Brain Resets During Sleep give us a new insight into understanding why sleep is so beneficial. The research, which was published in February 2017, helps us to understand what is happening to the human brain on a daily basis through analyzing the brains of mice. In essence, the authors conclude that sleep is the price we pay for keeping our brains healthy and allow us to learn new things. The scientific rationale behind this is that our synapses – the junctions between nerve cells – grow strong and large during the stimulation of daytime, then shrink by nearly 20 percent while we sleep, creating room for more growth and learning the next day. The review in How the Brian Resets During Sleep explains the significance in the following terms:
When a synapse is repeatedly activated during waking, it grows in strength, and this growth is believed to be important for learning and memory… however, this growth needs to be balanced to avoid the saturation of synapses and the obliteration of neural signaling and memories. Sleep is believed to be the best time for this process of renormalization, since when asleep we pay much less attention to the external world and are free from the ‘here and now’
Findings back up the views of experts
The findings provide a scientific explanation for many of the views held by experts in this field. Among them is Michael Grandner, Director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona. In this excerpt from the Sport Science Institute’s guide to understanding and supporting student-athlete mental wellness he points out that:
There’s a reason most people spend about one-third of their lives asleep. Sleep is not a passive state of rest, but an active state of rebuilding, repair, reorganization and regeneration. During waking hours, we engage with the environment, taking in information, interacting with others and forming new memories and experiences. During sleep, the body performs many other vital functions for which it needs to be disconnected from the environment. For example, sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation, emotional regulation, growth and cell repair
Derek-Jan Dijk, Professor of Sleep and Physiology and Director Surrey Sleep Research at the University of Surrey, is another leading authority who points out that a greater understanding of the benefits of sleep is vital for an athlete. He sums up the importance of sleep by stating that it should valued as highly as exercise.
We should look at sleep as an active process. Getting enough sleep is a positive thing which will help you perform in all aspects of life. It may be that extra sleep leads to more effective training routines and helps us learn patterns better. Practice makes perfect – and that happens more quickly if you get enough sleep
It is a view shared by Dr Charles Czeisler, the Director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard, who states that
asking athletes to play on minimal sleep is the same as asking them to “play with one hand tied behind their back …It’s making them do something we know degrades their reaction time, their ability to take in their training, to get the most benefit out of it. They spend all this time practicing but never get to sleep
Metrifit can help
One way of getting the best value out of sleep is through use of athlete monitoring systems such as Metrifit. Part of our daily well-being questionnaire in Metrifit asks athletes about their sleep quality and their sleep duration. It is important to have insight on both of these as optimum sleep duration can vary between individuals. What we look for is a change / deviation from normal sleep patterns and also co-relations between sleep and other important factors such as training loads, mood, health, energy levels and stress. Keeping track of these key factors and how they influence each other is a core part of athlete monitoring and visualization of these in easy to action way can prove invaluable to both coaches and athletes.
What is Metrifit?
Metrifit helps coaches get to know their athletes, and helps athletes get ready to perform. It is a simple, intuitive and effective approach to monitoring looking at how the ‘small picture’ of an athlete’s daily habits, shapes the ‘big picture’ of match day performance.
Why not have a look at our Metrifit Ready to Perform product and gain insight on the physical and mental state of your athletes through our daily well-being questionnaire? To find out more visit our Metrifit Product Overview page or contact at for a free demo.
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References
UW sleep research high-resolution images show how the brain resets during sleep
How the Brain Resets During Sleep | University of Wisconsin-Madison
5 areas sleep has the greatest impact on athletic performance | Fatigue Science
Mind, Body and Sport: Sleeping disorders By Michael Grandner
Sleeping longer ‘helps athletes reach peak performance’
The Doctor Who Coaches Athletes on Sleep
The benefits of sleep for elite athletes | Metrifit
Can Sleep Improve Your Athletic Performance? | Metrifit