How Important is Sleep to Student Athletes?

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Senior athlete Connor Chappell plays basketball during a game.

The creation of great athletes leads behind a key factor, sleep. How do athletes manage the stress with sleep and creating a peak performance?

“Additional sleep has been associated with increased speed and accuracy in sports such as tennis, basketball, and swimming. Some athletes who increased their amount of sleep also reported improved mood and reduced fatigue,” a study done by Sleep and Athletic Performance said

Sleep is at the top of the list for things to keep an eye on for students or athletes. With the benefits of playing sports, what can we change to get these student-athletes the best chance they have at succeeding? However, these athletes view it in many different ways.

Problems going around with COVID-19 with student-athlete Andy Mandel discusses his stress through his season.

“My stress level in school is a huge problem”, Mandel said.

The level of stress that students build up when they put a lot of time into their sports is very persistent.

What benefits from going to bed earlier? Multiple things peak performance when you step onto a field or court. The stress athletes have in and out of their sports will determine how much sleep they get, how long you can go with control of your mental and physical drainage.

There are many athletes still training and doing homework at 10:30-11:00 at night. But from a coaching point of view can a high-level coach differ from a student that gets good sleep to getting bad sleep.

“Athletes need to get more sleep in my opinion, knowing how important it is for them to have a great performance. I feel that sleep is huge for me and when I get a good 8 hours of sleep every night I am mentally alert”, multi-high school sports Barry Wohler said.

Student-athletes are always looking for what is in their future. Athletes have certain goals on going past their high school experience such as college

“Another means of examining the effect of sleep on performance is to extend the amount of sleep an athlete receives and determine the effects on subsequent performance”, Gatorade said in a statement.

Current problems with COVID-19 are causing delays in activities and problems with sports. Multi-sport athlete Ryan Rudd talks about how his sleep is on a tight schedule.

“I take naps during my sixth and seventh periods,” Rudd said.

The greatest of athletes watch their diet, they watch their exercise. But most of all they watch their sleep and multiple sources talked about the best athletes watching their sleep to the best they can. There are countless benefits to getting a great sleep schedule. These sources showed what impacts sleep makes.