Sleep, Recovery and Performance in Youth Sports

While every parent, player and coach involved in youth sports knows the importance of getting adequate sleep for health and performance, research indicates that many young athletes are not getting enough sleep on a regular basis. Research from Nationwide Children’s Hospital indicates that the average teenager gets between 7 and 7.25 hours of sleep each night, which is almost 30% less than that recommended by sleep experts¹. That’s like a MLB team trying to fly from Tampa Bay to Anaheim on only two-thirds of a tank or gas. For youth baseball, it’s like trying to win with only 6 players on the field.

Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Colorado say that teens need 9 to 10 hours of sleep every night, and about 80% of them don’t get it². Their data suggest that one-half of teens report feeling tired all day which puts their academic and athletic workloads at increased risk. Now, let’s look at how much sleep young athletes need and why sleep is important for health and performance. 

How much sleep do athletes of different ages need? Experts recommend.³

• Ages 6 to 12 years: Need 9 to 12 hours
• Ages 13 to 18 years: Need 8 to 10 hours 
• College athletes: Need 10+ hours
• Professional athletes: Need 8-10 hours

Why is sleep important for athletes? Sleep is essential for recovery, growth, development, personal health, learning, athletic performance, etc. Muscle growth is stimulated by exercise, but the body releases growth hormone to help repair and grow muscles, build bone, strengthen tendons and ligaments, increase energy stores, and enhance recovery during sleep. Sleep improves higher cognitive functions such as judgment, focus, reasoning, memory, decision-making, and emotional control, which may make the difference between winning and losing and success or failure. 

Sleep also plays a role in helping athletes learn new skills. The skills that you work on in practice are learned while you sleep. Proper sleep reinforces skill development. Lack of sleep delays it. If you want to improve the spin on your curve ball, shorten your swing, tweak your backhand, etc., work on it in practice and then sleep on it. 

• Positive effects. Research on college athletes indicates that sleep improves athletic performance by improving sprint speed, reaction time, accuracy, endurance, energy level, memory and cognitive function^5-7. Research on MLB players found that players slept less in the latter months of the season and the reductions in sleep were related to impaired strike-zone judgement, plate discipline and longevity.⁸  
• Negative effects. Research also found that a lack of sleep delayed recovery by reducing the production of human growth hormone, increasing the stress hormone cortisol, and increasing the risk of infections leading to a cold or flu. Lack of sleep has also been associated with an increased risk of injury by decreasing balance and postural control. Data suggest that athletes who sleep less than 8 hours per night have a 1.7 times greater risk of injury than those who sleep 8 hours or more¹¹. And, these negative effects don’t just go away if you take a nap or sleep an extra hour or two on weekends. There are no rollover minutes in sleep⁹. Missing sleep disturbs your sleep cycle and it can take four days to fully recover from one hour of lost sleep¹⁰.

So, ask yourself, “Will staying up until 11:00 pm playing an extra hour of video games affect how I help my team tomorrow when I have games at 9:00 am and noon or should I go to bed?” How much and how well you sleep tonight can have a significant impact on performance tomorrow and in the days that follow. 

How can you improve sleep? While there are several effective techniques that athletes can use to improve sleep, the following are a few examples of methods that might work with youth athletes. 

• Set a regular bedtime and wake-up time. This is one of the first things sleep experts recommend.  

• Make your bedroom comfortable. Evening practices and games can increase core body temperature and interfere with the onset of sleep. Some athletes may also experience sore muscles, fatigue, or even pain that causes discomfort at night. Overhydration or dehydration before bed can also affect sleep quality. Minimize the negative factors by staying hydrated throughout the day, foam roll and stretch before bedtime, keep the bedroom cool – 60 to 67⁰ F, and reduce noise and light.

• Turn off devices. Minimize the use using smartphones or other electronics in the evening. These devices release blue light that can delay the onset of sleep.

References

1. https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/specialties/sleep-disorder-center/sleep-in-adolescents
2. https://www.childrenscolorado.org/conditions-and-advice/sports-articles/sports-safety/sleep-student-athletes-performance/
3. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/teens-and-sleep/student-athletes-sleep-time
4. The Effects of Sleep Extension on the Athletic Performance of Collegiate Basketball Players (nih.gov)
5. The Effects of Sleep Extension on the Athletic Performance of Collegiate Basketball Players (nih.gov)
6. Sleep extension improves serving accuracy: A study with college varsity tennis players – PubMed (nih.gov)
7. Ongoing Study Continues to Show that Extra Sleep Improves Athletic Performance – American Academy of Sleep Medicine – Association for Sleep Clinicians and Researchers (aasm.org)
8. aasm.org/studies-link-fatigue-and-sleep-to-mlb-performance-and-career-longevity/
9. There Are No Rollover Minutes in Sleep – Professional Baseball Strength & Conditioning Coaches Society.
10. https://wakefitco.medium.com/how-long-does-it-take-to-repay-sleep-debt-26fec3d91393.
11. https://www.cornwallhighperformance.co.uk/blog/sleep-tips-for-the-youth-athlete