The Missing Link Student Athletes Often Overlook Enabling Peak Performance

By Jim Carpentier, C.S.C.S.

Attention high school and college sports coaches and athletic trainers:   Are your student athletes lacking in nutrition leading to subpar performance during practices and games?  Is it exercise undertraining or overtraining hindering their performance? Maybe it’s a combination of both or either one.  However, you’ll soon see that the margin of difference between a win and a loss in today’s sports world can often be traced to another essential conditioning component.

Indeed, adequate nutrition, exercise, and practice time all influence an athlete’s mental and physical effectiveness on the field, track, ice, basketball court, wrestling mat, or in the weight room (as does physical therapy or a rehab program for overcoming an injury).  However, an underestimated conditioning ingredient student athletes seemingly trivialize for enhancing strength and speed training, sports performance, injury and exercise recovery, and recuperation from grueling practices and games is spelled S-L-E-E-P!

Convincing a high school or college athlete to prioritize sleep before working out in the weight room or ensuring he or she is focusing on making nutritious food and beverage choices is not easy.  Busy athletes typically skimp on sleep and/or skip breakfast in favor of squeezing in a weight room workout before school starts.  Hopefully this article will not only motivate student athletes to get the required sleep and rest needed to perform at their best in the classroom, weight room, or athletic arena, but also you, as a sports or strength and conditioning coach, or athletic trainer, will also reinforce sleep’s powerful beneficial effect on academic and athletic performance to your athletes!

Sleep Deprivation: Like An Error, Fumble, or Missed Free-Throw

Think of dropped passes in the end zone.   Misfielded ground balls.  Missed free throws.  The running back fumbling the ball at a key point in the game.  Each of these scenarios can determine a victory or defeat in sports.  Sleep deprivation is analogous to fumbling the ball or dropping a pass, making an error on the baseball diamond, or missing the free throw that would have tied or won the game.  Sleep loss is like losing the game – the student athlete will not perform well in class, sports practices, games, or efficiently gain that desired strength, size, power, speed, agility, or endurance.  Minimizing sleep and proper rest will also delay rather than accelerate injury recovery, or recovery from intense practices, deter building strength and muscle between workouts, and make athletes more prone to illnesses such as colds or the flu.  That’s exactly what happens when insufficient sleep and rest are disregarded.

It is generally well-recognized by medical and fitness professionals that sleep deprivation is a root cause of diminished mental and physical academic, athletic, and exercise performance, and lower resistance to illness – thereby forcing athletes to miss classes, important practices, games, and workouts, for example.  In a December 13, 2023, article on the National Sleep Foundation’s website (“How Much Sleep Do Student Athletes Need?”), staff writer Danielle Pacheco mentions, “In addition to nutrition and physical exercise, sleep plays an essential role in helping athletes achieve optimal performance.  Unfortunately, student athletes often juggle a variety of commitments that can make it difficult to meet sleep needs.”1

So, how much sleep should a coach and athletic trainer advise student athletes to regularly get each night to gain strength and muscle in the weight room, be faster and more powerful on the field, or facilitate recovery from sports practices, games, or an injury?  Pacheco says, “Our guidelines state that teens (ages 13-18 years) should be getting between 8 and 10 hours of sleep every night.”2

School Breaks, Holidays:  Opportune Times to Improve Sleep Habits

Excellent times for high school and college athletes to really concentrate on getting required quality sleep are when school is not in session (e.g., holidays, winter, spring, summer breaks).  They can take advantage of not arising early to go to school (unless, of course, they’re taking summer classes or heading to an early-morning sports practice, for instance) to develop good sleep habits that can be continued – not only during the summer months, for example, when school has ended – but also when classes resume in late August or early September and then throughout the new school year.

Coaches and trainers:  Have your athletes follow these productive sleep guidelines not only during school breaks, but perhaps even more importantly, throughout the school year and especially during their sports seasons to up their game, exercise, and academic performance:

• Aim for at least 8-10 hours of sleep every night including weekends. That means lights out, computers, TV, and cell phones off, and in bed no later than 10 pm – even earlier especially if you need to arise by 5:30, 6, 6:30 or 7 am to fit in breakfast before school, sports practices, or early-morning weight room workouts. Keeping a regular sleep schedule – going to bed around the same time each night and awakening each morning near the same hour – helps your body adapt so it’s much easier falling asleep and arising the next morning.  It may initially be difficult breaking old sleep habits such as inconsistently going to bed and awakening at different times each week, but the effort to readjust your sleep schedule will no doubt boost mental and physical wellness, academic, exercise, and athletic performance.
• Note that even weekend sleep habits should not deviate that much from your weeknight sleep schedule! It’s so tempting to stay up later weekend nights – going out with friends to a restaurant, or going to parties, a movie, or other event.  The excuse is that one can arise later Saturday or Sunday morning (e.g. 9 or 10 am).  That just throws your body’s sleep cycle off, so come Monday morning when you should be up by 6 or 7 am, you’re sleepy and out of sync.  It doesn’t mean you can’t go out and enjoy yourself with an eye on the clock on weekends.  Just plan meeting with friends, or girlfriend or boyfriend earlier if possible, so you’re home in bed about the same time you go to sleep during the week.  Hopefully, peers will follow your lead – prioritizing a consistent sleep schedule themselves benefiting their physical and mental health and performance, too.
• Increase strength and muscle growth during quality and ample sleep. Performing all those Pull-ups, Deadlifts, Squats or Bench Presses during weight room workouts stimulates size and strength gains only when you’re regularly getting quality and enough sleep, and consuming muscle building and recovery-enhancing nutrients from foods and beverages.  Muscle growth occurs when you’re sleeping.  Weight training exercises merely provide the means or stimulus for muscle growth to happen when the muscle fibers are broken down in the gym and there is adequate recovery bolstered by nutrition, rest, and sleep between workouts.
• Keep the bedroom cool, dark, and quiet. Before going to bed, make sure lights are off, window blinds are down, and the room is at a comfortable temperature – preferably cooler rather than too warm.  If there’s a window, open a crack for fresh air – even during the winter months to aid sleep and ensure sufficient ventilation.  During warmer months, put a portable fan on in the bedroom or turn on air conditioning if available.
• Sleep on a comfortable mattress and pillow. Sleeping on an old sagging mattress or uncomfortable pillow can disrupt sleep quality.  Ensure the mattress and pillow optimally support your back, shoulders, neck, and head.
• Don’t go to bed angry, worried, or unhappy. Going to bed upset, unhappy, or tense (e.g. stressed by taking a final exam tomorrow or having lost a playoff game earlier in the day) prevents falling into a deep sleep – potentially causing a night of tossing and turning.  Use calming strategies before bedtime such as doing rhythmic, deep breathing – slowly inhaling/exhaling 10 times, stretching muscles, or taking a warm bath or shower to help relax.
• Avoid a heavy meal or drinking too many beverages before bedtime.  Immediately going to bed after a heavy meal without sufficient time for digestion or drinking too much water or juice before bedtime can also delay sleep and create a restless night – interrupting sleep to go to the bathroom a few times.  Instead, have a light and healthy snack (e.g. plain yogurt with fruit, nuts or popcorn, or some whole grain crackers with peanut butter, or a piece of turkey, fish or chicken with chopped carrots or celery).
• Sleep like a pro! In a November 17, 2017, article on the website com (“Cleveland Cavaliers Say Adjustment in Travel Itinerary Helping Team on Road Trips”), the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers Head Athletic Trainer Steve Spiro said, “The biggest thing for recovery is sleep.  There isn’t anything better, and for these guys that are taxing their bodies through travel and through their workload on the court, and practice, and extra work or whatever, we can have all the technology in the world, but obviously a great night’s sleep plays a role into performance.  There’s no doubt about it.  So you have to have your finger on the pulse of it.”3

     Also heed the sleep habits of Major League Baseball pitcher Justin Verlander.  In a New York Times July 9, 2019, article (“Justin Verlander: The Astros Ace and Sleep Guru”), writer James Wagner mentions that Verlander’s pitching dominance over the years may well be attributed to the amount of sleep he gets.  Wagner says, “Verlander aims for 10 hours a night.”  “And if I need more, I’m not afraid to just sleep more,” the successful pitcher states.  Verlander tells Wagner that “Sometimes eight or nine hours leaves him refreshed,” and that “Other times he gets eleven or even twelve.”4

Need more convincing on the power of sleep and how it impacts sports performance?  An October 23, 2014, article in ESPN Magazine (“Athlete Monitoring in the NBA”) discusses the Dallas Maverick’s athletic training staff’s focus on their players getting ample sleep.  Says Casey Smith, Maverick’s Head Athletic Trainer, “If you told an athlete you had a treatment that would reduce the chemicals associated with stress, that would naturally increase growth hormone, that enhances recovery rate, that improves performance, they would all do it.  Sleep does all of those things.”5 The ESPN article further expounds on a Stanford School of Medicine 2011 study on how extended sleep duration affects athletic performance.  The study observed eleven varsity men’s basketball team players and showed that increasing sleep to 10 hours a night reduced injury risk, and improved players reaction time, sprint times, and free-throw percentage.

     Listen student athletes:  Please make sleep and rest equally essential as conditioning exercises and the kinds of foods and beverages consumed each day to optimally attain your training goals – whether to increase strength, muscle, power, speed, agility, or endurance!  Make sleep your secret training tool starting now to provide that extra edge to overcome sports opponents during the school year.

References

1, 2 sleepfoundation.org. “How Much Sleep Do Student Athletes Need?” By Danielle Pacheco. (December 13, 2023).

3 espn.com “Cavaliers Say Adjustment in Travel Itinerary Helping Team on Road Trips.” By Dave McMenamin. (November 17, 2017).

4 The New York Times. “Justin Verlander: The Astros’ Ace and Sleep Guru.” By James Wagner. (July 9, 2019).

5, 6 ESPN Magazine. “Athlete Monitoring in the NBA.” (October 23, 2014).

Jim Carpentier, C.S.C.S., author of “Follow 4 Ws to Wellness: Including Stretching, Sleep, Sunlight, and Fresh Air!” (2024, RoseDog Books), served thirty plus years in health and fitness as a YMCA Associate Health and Wellness Director, personal trainer and massage therapist, high school strength and conditioning coach, athletic conditioning specialist for Montclair State University’s Sports Medicine Department and Football Team (Montclair, N.J.), and has written five hundred plus published wellness/sports conditioning articles for STACK.com, Better Nutrition, Coach and Athletic Director, Men’s Exercise, Men’s Workout, Natural Bodybuilding, and American Fitness Magazines and other publications.