Recovery
A · High confidenceWhat a night of little or no sleep does to your sports performance
Subject: Acute sleep deprivation and physical performance
What this means
After sleep loss, exercise performance dropped by 7.56 percent on average, across all types of exercise. Each extra hour awake before exercise added roughly 0.4 percent decline.
Craven J, McCartney D, Desbrow B, Sabapathy S, Bellinger P, Roberts L, Irwin C · 2022 · Sports Medicine 52(11):2669-2690
What does this rating mean?
Multiple consistent meta-analyses or a position stand. Sufficient basis for a fixed choice in the coaching.
Findings
A night or period of insufficient sleep is associated with a measurable drop in physical performance.
Who this applies to
Mostly men: 89 percent of the 959 participants. Sleep loss here meant 6 hours of sleep or less in 24 hours.
Size of the research
69 publications with 959 participants and 227 performance measures in total.
What to keep in mind
Results varied widely. A consistent decline appeared only with no sleep at all or waking earlier. Exercise done in the morning was largely unaffected.
Practical conclusion for REZA
The reason sleep is asked about at intake and not treated as an afterthought. With structurally poor sleep, training load is adjusted rather than increased.
View method and source
Methodology
Systematic and meta-analytic review
Original source
DOI: 10.1007/s40279-022-01706-y · PMID: 35708888
View on PubMed →This information is general education about scientific research. It is not personal medical advice and does not replace diagnosis or treatment by a doctor or other healthcare professional. If you have symptoms, a medical condition or take medication, consult your GP or treating professional before changing your training or nutrition.