by Charli Sargent, Greg Roach,The Conversation

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

When we think of elite athletes, we generally think of people who are at the top of their game physically.

We assume they do everything better than mere mortals—but what about when it comes to getting a good night's sleep?

Does being a superhuman athlete make you a superhuman sleeper?

Exercise has long beenassociated with better sleepand it seems reasonable to assume most elite athletes are good sleepers—after all, their job is to exercise and recover.

However, many athletes fail to clear the bar when it comes to getting enough sleep.

In fact, in a 2021 sample of 175 elite Australian athletes from 12 sports, only 3%obtained enough sleepon a regular basis, while 71% fell short by an hour or more.

This research mirrors studies on able-bodied and para-athletes from theUnited States,Brazil,Germany,SwitzerlandandChina.

So why is sleep such hard work for an elite athlete?

When it comes to sleep, an athlete's toughest opponent is usually theirtraining and competition schedule.

For some athletes (think individual sport athletes likeswimmers, triathletes and cyclists), it is regular early morning training sessions combined with very few days off that makes things difficult.

For others (think team sport athletes likeAustralian rules footballersandnetballers), it is training and competition schedules that change from week to week combined with travel that impact sleep.

Anxiety prior to competition, can also make it hard for athletes to get enough sleep.

So why does it even matter? In short, because sleep plays a part in athletic performance.

In a recentconsensus statement, sleep and sports scientists from around the world recognized sleep's importance for athletic performance. They also agreed elite athletes are particularly susceptible to insufficient sleep.

Many leading athletes—including eight-time Olympic gold medal sprinterUsain Bolt, four-time National Basketball Association title winnerLeBron James, and 20-time Grand Slam tennis championRoger Federer—agree sleep is crucial to success.

Studiessuggestelite athletes can still perform at or near their best after a night of insufficient sleep.

But whether they can perform day after day (like during an intensive training block) after multiple nights of insufficient sleep is the real championship question—one that we don't quite have the answer to yet.

But let's not forget the two words that can stop any athlete in their tracks—illness and injury.

People who obtain 5–6 hours of sleep per night are 4.5 times more likely to develop a common cold following exposure torhinoviruscompared to people who obtain seven hours of sleep per night.

If elite athletes don't get enough sleep, they are more likelyto get ill.

The relationship between sleep and risk of injury in elite sport is not as clear.

But insufficient sleepslows down response time, impairs movement patterns and reduces sport-specificskill execution—all of which may lead to injury.

But perhaps the biggest issue forelite athleteswhen it comes to insufficient sleep is how it makes them feel.

After multiple nights of insufficient sleep, athletes feelmore fatigued before training,perceive the exercise to be harderand experiencegreater mood disturbancecompared to when they are well rested.

The ability totolerate high levels of trainingis critical for athletes. Without enough sleep on a regular basis, an athlete may struggle to recover from training andpoor recoverycan impair subsequent performance.

For this reason alone, many sleep and sports scientists believe sleep is critical for performance because it is thefoundation of recovery.

At the highest level, small improvements in performance can be the difference between finishing on the podium or back in the bunch.

A case in point is the Tour de France—widely regarded as the most physically and mentallydemanding endurance race in the world.

Recently, many teams have attempted to optimize the sleeping conditions of their riders by using "recovery buses"—that transport cyclists from one stage of the race to the next—and outfitting hotel rooms withpersonalized mattresses and pillows.

Despite the grueling demands, riders' average sleep duration is surprisingly reasonable—about7.2 hours per night.

But not all athletes and teams have access to recovery buses and personalized hotel rooms.

What are some of the other strategies that athletes can adopt to ensure good sleep?

Here are some tips (for athletes and coaches) to consider when thinking about sleep:

This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.

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