Nocturnal sleep and sport performance

Nocturnal sleep has a significant impact on physical performance the following day. Cognitive impairment and mood disorders due to sleep loss can particularly affect performance in team and individual sports. However, sleep in competitive sports has been long neglected and only in the last 10 years has scientific evidence for this relationship been found (Gupta et al., 2016). In previous questionnaire studies, we were able to show that in competitive sports, sleep is often impaired (Erlacher, Ehrlenspiel, Adegbesan et al., 2011) and nightmares may occur before competitions (Erlacher, Ehrlenspiel et al., 2011; Erlacher et al., 2009; see video). In a study with a time-to-event design, we observed that sleep complaints are triggered by existing competition anxiety (Ehrlenspiel et al., 2018). We are currently investigating the occurrence of clinical sleep problems in Swiss young athletes and developing strategies of healthy sleep management for athletes (Vorster et al., 2022).

Selected Publications:

Ehrlenspiel, F., Erlacher, D. & Ziegler, M. (2018). Changes in subjective sleep quality before a competition and their relation to competitive anxiety. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 16(6), 553–568. 10.1080/15402002.2016.1253012

Erlacher, D., Ehrlenspiel, F., Adegbesan, O. & Galal El-Din, H. (2011). Sleep habits in German athletes before important competitions or games. Journal of Sports Sciences, 29(8), 859–866. 10.1080/02640414.2011.565782

Erlacher, D., Ehrlenspiel, F. & Schredl, M. (2011). Frequency of nightmares and gender significantly predict distressing dreams of German athletes before competitions or games. The Journal of Psychology, 145(4), 331–342. 10.1080/00223980.2011.574166

Erlacher, D., Schredl, M., Ehrlenspiel, F. & Bosing, M. (2009). Subjective sleep quality and state anxiety of high-school students prior to a final sport exam. In A. M. Columbus (Ed.), Advances in Psychology Research (pp. 179–186). Nova Science Publishers.

Vorster, A., Erlacher, D., Barrazoni, F., Hossner, E.-J. & Bassetti, C. (2022). Schlafprobleme im Leistungssport. Swiss Medical Forum – Schweizerisches Medizin-Forum, 21(11–12), 198–203. 10.4414/smf.2022.08941

Literature:

Gupta, L., Morgan, K. & Gilchrist, S. (2016). Does elite sport degrade sleep quality? A systematic review. Sports Medicine, 47(7), 1317–1333. 10.1007/s40279-016-0650-6

Contact:

Daniel Erlacher