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home / 世界杯决赛2022

how does a poor night’s sleep affect the next day’s athletic performance?

while the negative effects of too little sleep on athletic performance are well accepted, the impact may be even greater depending on the type of endeavour and the time of day when it’s performed.

by jill barker
published jul 17, 2022
read time 4 minute read
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read time 4 minute read
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cutting short a good night’s sleep has been shown to have more of a negative effect on athletic performance than going to bed late or struggling to get to sleep. getty images/istockphoto
we’ve all had those nights before a big athletic event when a solid eight hours of shut-eye is impossible to come by. sometimes it’s getting to sleep that’s hard. other times you wake up in the middle of the night, followed by what seems like endless hours of tossing and turning. then there are those early-morning wake-up calls that drag you from a fitful sleep so you can make it to your event or workout on time. how does a poor night’s sleep affect the next day’s athletic performance? studies suggest that any sleep loss has the potential to reduce the chances of being at your best. sleep facilitates recovery, boosts immunity, restores energy and consolidates memory and motor learning — all vital aspects of an athlete’s well-being and ability to perform to their potential. lack of sleep, on the other hand, has a negative effect on alertness, reaction time, decision making, mood, confidence and emotional control. it also increases perceived effort, meaning sleepy athletes feel like they’re working harder than they are.
while the negative effects of too little sleep on athletic performance are well accepted, there’s a growing body of evidence suggesting the impact may be even greater depending on the type of athletic endeavour and the time of day when it’s performed.
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a review of 77 studies on sleep and athletic performance, led by a research team from australia, divided all the data into specific categories of exercise: anaerobic power, speed/power endurance, high-intensity interval training, strength, endurance, strength-endurance and skill. the researchers drilled down again based on the type of sleep loss — trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep or getting up early — and whether the exercise was performed in the morning or afternoon/evening.
their results confirmed what many expected: the impact of too little sleep the night before a workout, game, meet or competition is more nuanced than previously thought.
“overall, our results indicate that acute sleep loss negatively impacts next-day performance; however, the magnitude of the impact depends on the type of exercise performed, as well as which sleep-loss pattern preceded exercise,” said the researchers.
a closer look at the data suggests that sports and tasks that are highly skilled are more negatively affected by too little sleep than endurance-, strength- or power-based activities, like going for a run, a bike ride or working out in the gym. what really affects athletic performance after sleep loss are the associated deficits in reaction time, alertness, attention, memory and decision making.
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“physical tasks that are also cognitively demanding are likely to be most affected by acute sleep loss,” said the researchers.
the data also reveals that physical activity performed later in the day is more likely to be affected by too little sleep than exercise or competitions taking place in the morning.
“we found that on average, exercise performance declined by about 0.4 per cent per hour following sleep loss,” said the researchers. “for example, if an individual rises early (around 3 a.m.) and performs a task 12 hours later (around 3 p.m.), then a five per cent decrease can be anticipated.”
the researchers went on to suggest that “if exercise is to be performed after a period of sleep loss, it should be done as soon as practically possible.”
good to keep in mind if you’re fortunate enough to have some control over when you do your workout after a tough night’s sleep. good news, too, for anyone faced with an early start after tossing and turning the night away. but even those folks need to be aware of the consequences of getting too early a start.
turns out that cutting short a good night’s sleep has more of a negative effect on athletic performance than going to bed late or struggling to get to sleep. so if you’re in the habit of getting on the road early before an event, you may want to consider arriving the day before an early start, even if it means getting to bed later than normal. this is especially important for individuals who routinely struggle with sleep before big events.
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such small but impactful changes in training and travel habits can better accommodate a typical night of restless sleep before a competition. but what’s still lacking in the field of sleep science is information on the effect of fragmented sleep — multiple short awakenings over the course of the night — on physical performance. it’s also not clear whether quality, as opposed to quantity, of sleep can mitigate the consequences of sleep deficit.
despite these gaps in knowledge, athletes can incorporate some of this latest data into their pre-competition strategies and reap the benefits of better performance — which will make sleep that much easier to come by.

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