Seven Benefits of Sleep for Athletes
You need to sleep to make optimal progress from your training. In this article, we will discuss seven benefits of sleep for athletes.
Why is sleep important for an athlete?
Sleep is important for athletes because it allows healing, boosts performance, and decreases your risk of injury. Additionally, sleep helps your body repair from all the physical stress you endure during training and competition. Finally, sleep also boosts learning and memory of complex athletic skills.
Does sleep improve athletic performance?
Sleep does improve athletic performance. Sleeping ten hours per night improved athletic performance more than sleeping eight hours per night.
Getting ten hours of sleep also decreased injury rates for athletes and reduced the risk of illnesses.
Is 10 hours of sleep good for athletes?
Ten hours of sleep per night is optimal for most athletes. While average people can generally recover with eight to nine hours per night of sleep, serious athletes may need ten hours of sleep per night for optimal performance and recovery.
Do athletes need more sleep?
Athletes do in fact need more sleep than average people. Strenuous physical activity takes a toll on your body. If you participate in a sport or serious training, you probably need more sleep than most people.
Let’s discuss some of the benefits of sleep for athletes in more detail below.
Improve Coordination
Sleeping enough can actually improve coordination and movement. Sleep can also improve learning of complex skills and movements. If you participate in a sport with coordinated movements or complex skills, sleeping enough can actually benefit your performance.
Improve Performance
Sleeping ten hours per night can actually benefit your performance in any sport you take part in. Getting enough sleep can boost power, speed, vertical jump, strength and strength endurance. Sleeping enough every night can improve performance without any extra effort.
Build More Muscle
Sleeping enough can also help you build more muscle and strength. During sleep, your body repairs and builds muscle tissue for improved performance and strength. Growth hormone and IGF-1 are two muscle building hormones that are elevated during sleep. Adequate sleep helps you benefit from increased Growth hormone levels for more muscle growth.
If you do not sleep enough, you will impair muscle building.
Burn More Fat
Sleeping enough also helps you burn more fat and boosts your metabolism. Sleeping enough also helps you manage your appetite and willpower during the day, making fat loss much easier overall. If you want to improve your body composition in addition to your performance, you need to sleep enough.
Boost Power
Sleeping enough boosts muscle power, vertical jump and sprint times.
By boosting power, getting enough sleep can help you earn a spot on the team, jump higher, or perform better. Power is such a crucial aspect of any sport. By boosting power, you instantly boost your performance.
Boost Endurance
Adequate sleep also boosts your endurance and allows you to adapt positively to endurance training. Sleeping enough may also improve your heart health for better endurance performance and stamina. Sleeping enough boosts both anaerobic and aerobic endurance.
Reduce Injuries
Adequate sleep can also help you to reduce the risk of injuries. In one study, youth athletes who slept six hours per night or fewer had higher injury rates than athletes who slept more hours per night. Athletes who sleep less than 7 hours per night experienced 1.7 times as many musculoskeletal injuries as athletes who slept more than 7 hours per night.
Boost Mood
Sleeping enough may also help athletes boost mood, lower stress levels and improve mental health. Since athletes often face unique stressors, any action that improves mood and lowers stress is probably worthwhile.
Final Thoughts
Getting adequate sleep can really help you to improve performance, reduce injuries and progress faster. If you take your training seriously, you should also take your sleep and recovery seriously. Your body will thank you. If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to leave a comment below.
