Sleep Benefits for Athletes and Us All

An often overlooked intervention, sleep is extremely important in recovery and healing.  Sleep is an essential body function that frequently does not get enough attention.

Traditionally, diet and exercise have been viewed as the two cornerstones to health and longevity. The three pillars of health should include diet, exercise, and sleep, - ignoring one causes the other two to suffer (1). 
In the athlete sleep deprivation has been shown in studies to have an effect on aspects such as reaction time, accuracy, strength and endurance, and cognitive function.

Inadequate sleep duration in the general population has been associated with a myriad of negative health effects including neurocognitive, metabolic, immunologic and cardiovascular dysfunction (1). People who are sleep deprived may have impaired brain function that could affect judgment and/or decision-making, sleep deprivation has been associated with obesity and diabetes. Sleep-deprived individuals may crave unhealthy foods and potentially affect appetite, food intake, and protein synthesis. Impaired sleep also negatively affects growth hormone and cortisol secretion (stress hormone). Sleep deprivation increases pro-inflammatory cytokines, which impairs immune system function, impedes muscle recovery and repair from damage, results in slower/less accurate cognitive performance, and alters pain perception (1). 

For Athletes It is well documented that a period of intensified training resulting in reduced sleep duration and efficiency, is associated with a concomitant 67% increase in illness. (2) In addition, athletes who sleep less than 8 hrs per night increase their injury risk by 1.7 times, suggesting that sleep has a reparative and protective effect on recovery and injury risk. (3-6)

Many different sleep disorders exist, and often people remain undiagnosed and untreated. For example Sleep apnea is a common condition that affects at least 10 % of the adult US population (1). Although typically considered a disease of obese men, lean individuals including elite athletes may suffer from this problem (1).
There are many ways to manage sleep disorders and the cause of sleep disorders are varied, including things as obvious as pain.

If you or someone you know suffers from sleep issues get in to Sprouting Health for an evaluation especially if pain is keeping you up as you now know Sleep is related to a HUGE amount of issues! 
 
 
References

1. Vitale KC, Owens R, Hopkins SR, Malhotra A. Sleep Hygiene for Optimizing Recovery in Athletes: Review and Recommendations. Int J Sports Med. 2019 Aug;40(8):535-543. doi: 10.1055/a-0905-3103. Epub 2019 Jul 9. PMID: 31288293; PMCID: PMC6988893.
2. Von Rosen, P., Frohm, A., Kottorp, A., Fridén, C., & Heijne, A. (2016, 08/19). Too little sleep and an unhealthy diet could increase the risk of sustaining a new injury in adolescent elite athletes. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 27. https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.12735
3. Gao B, Dwivedi S, Milewski MD, Cruz AI Jr. CHRONIC LACK OF SLEEP IS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED SPORTS INJURY IN ADOLESCENTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS. Orthop J Sports Med. 2019 Mar 29;7(3 Suppl):2325967119S00132. doi: 10.1177/2325967119S00132.
4. Milewski, M. D., Skaggs, D. L., Bishop, G. A., Pace, J. L., Ibrahim, D. A., Wren, T. A., & Barzdukas, A. (2014). Chronic lack of sleep is associated with increased sports injuries in adolescent athletes. Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics, 34(2), 129-133.
5. Fullagar, H. H. K., Duffield, R., Skorski, S., Coutts, A. J., Julian, R., and Meyer, T. (2015). Sleep and recovery in team sport: current sleep-related issues facing professional team-sport athletes. Int. J. Sports Physiol. Perform. 10, 950–957. doi: 10.1123/ijspp.2014-0565
6. Gao B, Dwivedi S, Milewski MD, Cruz AI Jr. CHRONIC LACK OF SLEEP IS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED SPORTS INJURY IN ADOLESCENTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS. Orthop J Sports Med. 2019 Mar 29;7(3 Suppl):2325967119S00132. doi: 10.1177/2325967119S00132.