Adequate sleep is extremely important for performance, learning, development and physical & mental health.
From an athletic point of view, lack of sleep has been shown to;
- Decrease stamina
- Impair decision making
- Impair recovery
- Reduce energy
- Decrease motivation
Top tips
- As a basic guide, it is recommended that athletes get 8-10 hours of restful sleep per night or 60+ hours per week.
- Naps (10-30 minutes) can help pick you up if planned correctly. Be aware that naps too close to bedtime can interfere with your regular sleep patterns.
- Athletes are advised to establish a set bed time routine and stick to it. See pre-bedtime time line.
Many athletes go to bed with the best intentions of getting a restful night’s sleep but find themselves distracted by external influences such as using phones / tablets or stressing about the next day. These distractions are effectively ‘stealing our sleep’.
Sleep Deprivation Exercise
If you feel you are not getting enough sleep, use the sleep hygiene graphic to assist you complete the following exercise;
- Download the task sheet and refer to example
- Identify what is ‘stealing your sleep’
- Identify strategies to improve sleep
Interested in finding out more?
If you would like any more information about any of the resources within the PALs Microsite you can contact a member of our team.
Manage Cookie Consent
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.