SLEEP / 002 [WHY DO ATHLETES SLEEP WORSE BEFORE BIG COMPETITIONS?]

Question
Why do athletes often sleep badly the night before an important competition?

Study
Researchers asked 283 top athletes from Australia, from both team and individual sports, to fill in questionnaires. They wanted to know two things: how often athletes sleep badly before competition, and what causes it.

Findings
64% of the athletes had slept worse than normal before an important competition at least once in the past year. The main problem was not waking up at night, but falling asleep in the first place: 82% struggled with that. The cause was mostly in their head. 83% were thinking about the competition and 44% felt nervous. Most of these athletes slept fine in normal life, so it was not a general sleep problem. Still, more than half had no plan at all for nights like this.

What It Means for Athletes
If you lie awake before a big match, you are not alone and there is probably nothing wrong with your sleep. Your body is ready for bed, but your mind is still competing. A darker or cooler room won't fix that on its own. What helps is a routine that tells your brain the day is done. And don't panic: in this study, only 14% felt their performance actually suffered.

Try this: build a 20 minute wind down routine and practise it on normal training nights first. For example: write down tomorrow's plan and anything on your mind, then read or do slow breathing. By the time a final comes, your brain already knows the routine.

Source
Juliff, L. E., Halson, S. L., & Peiffer, J. J. (2015). Understanding sleep disturbance in athletes prior to important competitions. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 18, pp. 13 to 18.

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