By Amy King
It’s one thing to say…
“Good sleep is essential for your performance goals.”
It’s altogether different to say:
“When you wake up super early without getting enough sleep beforehand, your lower body strength, endurance, and vertical leap actually decrease.”
The latter is a tad more specific and it’s more likely to resonate than just saying “sleep is important” for the aspiring athlete, like yourself.
Based on the results of a new (2022) systematic review and meta-analysis on acute sleep loss and athletic performance.
Let’s take a look at the details.
The researchers looked at lots of different types of exercise, as well as various forms of sleep deprivation. As any workaholic, TV-binger, or overthinker can attest—sleep loss comes in a variety of options.
According to the study: Less than or equal to six hours of sleep in any 24-hour period.
And to no one’s surprise, sleep loss did indeed have a negative effect on athletic performance.
Acute sleep loss of all kinds (say, one bad night of sleep) had a negative impact on all types of exercise.
Getting no sleep (sleep deprivation) and waking up early after not getting enough sleep (late restriction) had the worst impact on athletic performance.
Staying up late (early restriction) didn’t seem to be as bad as late restriction and no sleep.
Exercise in the P.M. was more impacted by sleep loss than exercise in the A.M.
What’s more, skill-based exercise tasks were the most impacted by sleep loss (think: scoring a goal in soccer).
That aside many different types of exercise and performance were also affected, including:
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If you are curious why exactly sleep is so crucial to your athletic goals, this is some extra info you can dig into...
This review we have discussed so far doesn’t dig into the mechanism, but other research does.
Scientists have looked into sleep deprivation’s influence on factors like breathing, heart rate, hormones, immune function, and more.
According to a comprehensive review, some of the most likely mechanisms include2:
This probably isn’t a huge deal for those of you who are hitting the gym for their regular workout the next day. They just might not get in that extra rep or maybe their training sessions feels “blah.”
But if you are running a race or looking to hit a PR in their next workout? It can be helpful to understand the importance of adequate sleep the night before.
Sometimes it’s just not possible to get the recommended seven to nine hours.
If you have to miss out on sleep, this review suggests there are some strategies you can use to optimize the sleep you do get.
For example, morning workouts seem to be less affected by sleep loss than afternoon and evening ones.
So, to limit the impact of a poor night’s sleep, you might aim to train in the morning if it’s doable.
What’s more, based on the researchers’ analysis, staying up late has less of an impact than waking up super early.
But keep in mind: These findings were based on cumulative data from many studies, not a large head-to-head trial where they tested a variety of situations.
So…
Overtraining syndrome happens when you don’t recover adequately from activity. It can involve injuries, illness, fatigue, and/or mood changes.
Which means it may be a smart approach may to identify trends by comparing your sleep duration and quality to training performance over time.
Besides possibly helping you mitigate the negative effects of sleep loss, it’ll give you hard data for how it affects your performance.
1. Craven J, McCartney D, Desbrow B, Sabapathy S, Bellinger P, Roberts L, et al. Effects of acute sleep loss on physical performance: A systematic and Meta-Analytical Review. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.). U.S. National Library of Medicine; 2022.
2. Fullagar HH, Skorski S, Duffield R, Hammes D, Coutts AJ, Meyer T. Sleep and athletic performance: The effects of sleep loss on exercise performance, and physiological and cognitive responses to exercise. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.). U.S. National Library of Medicine; 2014.
Amy King is the founder of AKE Fitness & Nutrition. When she’s not serving her clients, she is pursuing her corporate career in mining, bodybuilding and spending time with loved ones. She calls Perth, Western Australia home.
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