Invest in Your Rest: Put the Phone Away

Sleep is an essential pillar of health, and it is critical in recovery for athletes of all ages. Sleep deprivation in athletes can impact both mental and physical performance.

A systematic review of several studies on sleep and its impact on recovery and performance was published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine (2019). Based on the findings in these studies, sleep deprivation led to decreases in running performance, muscle glycogen concentration and reduced submaximal strength, distance covered, sprint times, tennis serve accuracy, soccer kicking accuracy, and time to exhaustion.

It is recommended that most adults get 7–9 hours of sleep per night. However, most of the athletes in these studies reported an average of 6.5 to 6.8 hours of sleep per night. One of the main reasons for this was the use of electronic devices before bedtime.

Smartphones and other hand-held electronic devices have been shown to have negative impacts on sleep for different reasons. According to Pew Research Center, nearly ninety-five percent of teens in the United States have access to smartphones. Screen time among children and adolescents has significantly increased over the last 10 years with the use of computers, gaming systems, tablets, televisions, and phones. Most teenagers average approximately 9 hours of time a day on some kind of device.

Alters Bed Time Hour

One way that smartphones lead to sleep deprivation is by impacting the bedtime hour. Smartphones can help with daily productivity and provide forms of entertainment with social media, but at some point, the brain needs to disengage. Each time someone checks their phone after going to bed, the brain is stimulated. This makes it more difficult to fall asleep to begin with or fall back asleep after responding to a text, call, or notification.

Suppresses Melatonin

Studies now show that the blue light emitted from a smartphone also impacts the circadian rhythm. This is due to the suppression of the hormone melatonin, which regulates the sleep-wake cycle. Not only can decreased melatonin make it hard to fall asleep and lead to insomnia, it can also make individuals feel sluggish and inattentive the following morning. As mentioned previously, this can lead to delayed reaction times for athletes of all sports. The shifts in circadian rhythm due to melatonin suppression can also lead to spikes in glucose and increased blood sugar levels.

Stimulates Excitement or Anxiety

Scrolling through social media before bed can also lead to feelings of excitement or anxiety. These feelings lead to alertness which can delay reaching the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep. The REM stage of sleep helps reboot the central nervous system and is imperative for the recovery and repairing of tissues and cells.

If an athlete is only sleeping 5 to 6 hours a night, then they only spend approximately forty-five minutes to one hour in the REM stage. For optimal recovery and performance 2 to 2.5 hours in the REM stage is necessary. While REM sleep is important, deep sleep (restorative sleep) is the stage just before REM. This is where the bulk of athletic recovery takes place. Human growth hormone is released during this stage, which is vital to an athlete’s tissue growth and muscle repair. Coach Loftis goes more in depth on sleep and recovery in this article.

Integrating good sleep hygiene strategies is essential for athletes to perform their best. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that adolescents keep cell phones out of their bedroom and eliminate electronic device use thirty minutes to one hour before bed. Waking up at the same time daily and creating a nightly bedtime routine has also shown to be beneficial in increasing sleep hours.

Many times athletes prioritize training and nutrition, but minimize the importance of recovery. Invest in your rest and create better sleep habits for ideal recovery.

References

American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. (2020, February) Screen Time and Children. https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Children-And-Watching-TV-054.aspx#:~:text=Screen%20Time%20and%20Children&text=Children%20and%20adolescents%20spend%20a

Schaeffer, K. (2019, August 23). Most U.S. teens who use cellphones do it to pass time, connect with others, learn new things. Pew Research Center; Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/23/most-u-s-teens-who-use-cellphones-do-it-to-pass-time-connect-with-others-learn-new-things

Vitale, K. C., Owens, R., Hopkins, S. R., & Malhotra, A. (2019). Sleep Hygiene for Optimizing Recovery in Athletes: Review and Recommendations. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 40(08), 535–543. https://doi.org/10.1055/a-0905-3103