The recommended amount of sleep for young adults (18-25) is 7-9 hours, for older adults this figure drops slightly to 7-8 hours. These are the guidelines set by the US National Sleep Foundation.
When compared against these sleep targets, research has shown that elite athletes obtain less sleep or the minimum amount of sleep that the guidelines would suggest (Lastella et al., 2015, 2020).
While we know missing out on sleep is never a good thing there is a considerable variance across athletes’ response to sleep loss and a lack of understanding on how much sleep athletes really need!
This study (full text here) aimed to test the hypothesis that objective habitual sleep duration in elite athletes will be lower than their subjective sleep need. To do this they aimed to:
- Identify the subjective sleep need of elite athletes and compare it with an objective measure of their habitual sleep duration.
- Examine the relationships between habitual sleep onset, habitual sleep offset, and habitual sleep duration.
- Compare sleep variables between individual and team sports.
- Compare sleep variables between sexes.
How did they do it?
175 athletes across sports such as Australian rules football, kayaking, and road cycling (among others) were selected.
Athletes’ sleep/wake behaviour was monitored for a minimum of 4 nights during a normal phase of training outside of competition using self-report paper sleep diaries in conjunction with wrist activity monitors.
The athletes were asked to assess, via the below questions, their sleep in their sleep diaries:
- Sleep need (in hours), assessed with the question “How many hours of sleep do you need to feel rested?”
- Sleep satisfaction (1-10), assessed with the question “How satisfied are you with the amount of sleep you get?”
- Sleep quality (1-6) assessed with the question “Overall, how would you rate the quality of your sleep?”
The wrist activity monitors measured:
- Sleep onset (in hours: minutes): the time at which an athlete first fell asleep after going to bed.
- Sleep offset (in hours: minutes): the time at which an athlete last woke before getting up.
- Sleep duration (in hours): the amount of sleep obtained during a sleep period, that is, between sleep onset and sleep offset.
What were the results?
To discuss the results let’s aim to lay out the original questions and answer them.
- Identify the subjective sleep need of elite athletes and compare it with an objective measure of their habitual sleep duration.
The participants had a habitual sleep duration of 6.7 (±0.8) hours, this was significantly less than their self-assessed sleep need of 8.3 (±0.9) hours, resulting in a sleep deficit. Only 3% of athletes regularly obtained the sufficient amount of sleep to satisfy their need.
- Examine the relationships between habitual sleep onset, habitual sleep offset, and habitual sleep duration.
Put simply the earlier athletes went to bed and the later they woke the more sleep they got. The most sleep was obtained by athletes who fall asleep between 22:00 and 22:30 or wake up between 09:00 and 09:30.
- Compare sleep variables between individual and team sports.
Sleep duration was significantly less than the self-assessed sleep need for all sports. Sleep onset and offset times were earlier in athletes from individual sports yet sleep duration was shorter in these sports when compared to their team sport counterparts.
Sleep onset was earliest in mountain bikers and latest in rugby players, sleep offset was earliest in triathletes and latest in basketballers, and habitual sleep duration was shortest in triathletes and longest in basketballers.
- Compare sleep variables between sexes.
While female athletes went to bed earlier than their male counterparts there was no effect on habitual sleep duration between the two sexes, nor was there an effect of sleep need, satisfaction, or quality.
What does this mean for us?
From their sample of 175 athletes across ages and sexes the authors found that athletes need 8.3 hours of sleep to feel rested, yet they typically only get less than 7 hours.
Athletes from an individual sport background obtain less sleep than their team sport counterparts, possibly due to the nature of typically training paradigms within sports such as swimming or triathlon i.e., early into the pool.
The key takeaway from this study is only 3% of athletes within this sample were getting enough sleep to satisfy their perceived sleep need! While there are limited studies which discuss the consequences of chronic sleep loss on performance we are all too aware off the effect a couple of bad nights sleep can often have on our performance. In untrained adults sleep loss has been shown to decrease response times and error rates in tasks amongst many other such consequences (e.g., Belenky et al. 2003, Van Dongen et al. 2003).
For us as athletes we need to be conscious of our sleep need and aim to do everything within our control to hit these targets and achieve quality sleep. Earlier bedtimes decreased emphasis on those early morning sessions and limiting screen time before bed are all feasible changes we can make to our routines. For those who work shifts (we’ve discussed this before here) or those with young families’ naps can be your best friend, as can an adjustment in training expectations following specifically difficult nights.
For us as coaches we need to be mindful that our athletes are not achieving their required sleep need. We should strive to firstly educate athletes on everyday simple additions they can make to improve this along with effectively scheduling our training to account for some of the challenges highlighted above. When working with younger athletes this is a habit that should be drilled into them and/or discussed with parents as we’re well aware children and younger adults need more sleep. We should also recognise if we are not getting enough sleep ourselves we cannot expect the bring the same level of intensity to our work!
Works Cited:
Belenky, G., Wesensten, N. J., Thorne, D. R., Thomas, M. L., Sing, H. C., Redmond, D. P., … & Balkin, T. J. (2003). Patterns of performance degradation and restoration during sleep restriction and subsequent recovery: A sleep dose‐response study. Journal of sleep research, 12(1), 1-12.
Lastella, M., Roach, G. D., Halson, S. L., & Sargent, C. (2015). Sleep/wake behaviours of elite athletes from individual and team sports. European journal of sport science, 15(2), 94-100.
Lastella, M., Roach, G. D., Vincent, G. E., Scanlan, A. T., Halson, S. L., & Sargent, C. (2020). The impact of training load on sleep during a 14-day training camp in elite, adolescent, female basketball players. International journal of sports physiology and performance, 15(5), 724-730.
Sargent, C., Lastella, M., Halson, S. L., & Roach, G. D. (2021). How Much Sleep Does an Elite Athlete Need?. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 1(aop), 1-12.
Van Dongen, H., Maislin, G., Mullington, J. M., & Dinges, D. F. (2003). The cumulative cost of additional wakefulness: dose-response effects on neurobehavioral functions and sleep physiology from chronic sleep restriction and total sleep deprivation. Sleep, 26(2), 117-126.
