Athletes work day in and day out to maintain a level of fitness for their respective sports. Between working out, practicing, and playing in actual games people tend to be pretty tired by the time night time hits. Sleeping in can feel like a reward to those who work so hard all day, and mean little in terms of fitness and health. In actuality, sleeping is just as important if not more important to athletes than just their game. A good night’s rest and a healthy sleeping pattern can make all the difference in whether an athlete can perform at their best level.
Sleep Deprivation
What an athlete does after the game can determine just as much as all the exercise put in during the game. A lack of sleep or sleep deprivation can cause “decrease production of glycogen and carbohydrates that are stored for energy use during physical activity.” In short this basically means that an athlete will have lower overall energy, which can result in lower performance. A loss of sleep can also result in decreased metabolism, protein intake, and appetite. These are some of the very staples as to why your body is able to keep in shape, and a lack of sleep can take that all away instantly. All of this holds especially true for younger athletes, and many studies are showing that this generation does not get enough sleep.
How Much Sleep Should Athletes Get?
The minimum amount of sleep required is about 7 hours, but this number should not be taken as the end all be all of how much sleep one should get. In fact this number varies greatly depending on age and fitness. 14-17 year olds tend to need 8-10 hours of sleep, but an appropriate amount is 7-11 hours give or take. With young adults (18-25), 7-9 hours are needed but 6-11 is appropriate. Seeing these numbers, it’s easy to see why young athletes do not get enough sleep. Furthermore, these numbers also reveal an interesting result.
The amount of sleep that is often the median turns out to be 9 hours of sleep. Be as it may, this is no mere accident. According to an article published by the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, when athletes are allowed to sleep as much as they want they sleep for “an average of 9.25 hours a night.” All of this research put together suggests that the golden number of hours of sleep an athlete should be getting is about 9 hours. Unfortunately, even with concrete evidence this number is not so easy to achieve.
Life of a Student Athlete
The life of an athlete is complicated, and there are always other components in play. Getting 9 hours of sleep sounds like heaven to most, but this number is difficult to achieve for a good number of reasons. Young athletes are often still in school, meaning on top of their athletics they must juggle coursework as well. The workload of school can obviously differ depending on what year of study one is in, but the average amount per night in high school is 3 hours. Let’s put this in perspective to see how sleep fits in.
Say an athlete named Sarah has to be at school by 7:30am since classes start at 8am. She must wake up at about 6:30am to get ready enough to catch the bus that will get her there by 7:30am. She goes through a full day of school which ends at 3:00pm, and practice starts at 3:30pm. Practice goes for 2 and a half hours, and when she gets home it is 6:30pm. She eats dinner and starts her homework at 7pm. By the time she is done, it’s 10pm and time to go to bed. Sarah gets ready for bed and hops in at 10:30pm, by the time she falls asleep it is 11pm. What is wrong with this picture?
Sarah did everything she was supposed to in an average day at school, yet she only achieved about 7 hours of sleep before she had to wake up again. This is all also without factoring in social interactions, food breaks, or possible traffic when traveling to and from places. Student athletes do not get enough sleep because of scenarios like this, and can hurt their overall growth by doing so.
Preserving the Body Through Sleep
Sleep can make or break student athletes. High schools start at the same time everyday and allow for no flexibility in athletes sleep schedules. Colleges are more flexible but depending on when an athlete has class or practice can also influence whether they get to much or too little sleep. It’s been shown that those who get less than 8 hours of sleep per night had “an injury rate of 1.7 times greater than those who slept more than 8 hours on average!” This is why sleep is so important. Without the right amount of rest, an athlete can actually harm themselves more by not sleeping correctly in their post exercise or post game time. Athletes need sleep not only to rest from a long day on the field/court, but also to stay in the same level of health that they have been working so hard to maintain.