Sleep Quality and Sports Performance


0

After a long flight and the big competitive match will take place in a few days, many athletes can be quite anxious. Without quality sleep, athletes will arrive in the training facility or the competition event looking exhausted. This could happen when they have problem sleeping. It happens when they stay up until 2AM on the bed struggling to sleep, despite their tired body and mind. It means that athletes should also be instructed to maintain healthy sleeping patterns. Sleep problems can happen to both adolescent and adult athletes. When they walk into the training center, coaches should make sure that they are in optimum biological state to achieve the best physical performance. If athletes seem to dip below their normal biological levels, coaches need to investigate whether they have ideal sleeping pattern.

Sleep quality also determines whether athletes are able to recover well from training sessions. Unfortunately, the ability to sleep is not something that can be instructed. Physical and mental conditions could determine whether athletes have quality sleep or even able to sleep at all. Coaches should communicate with their athletes about factors that could cause them to have sleep problems. As an example, hectic schedules could contribute to poor sleeping habit. Diet may also contribute to sleep quality. Coaches should open a good line of communication with their athletes. Emotional stress is something that may affect many athletes. As an example, many high school and college students need to take their academic lives seriously.

Kids are kids. Young athletes still don’t have enough experience on how to manage their time properly. When they are involved in professional competitive event for the first time, this can represent the severest amount of stress that they ever experience. When they look at their present situation, they will think that everything that have experienced is a breeze in comparison. In order to go through these new things in their lives, they need to have much better mental endurance. It means that coaches need to work with sports psychiatrists. If athletes have calm minds, it is much more likely for them to sleep better. Athletes should be taught on how to have and use the reflective capability. They need to be able to reflect on their experience in a positive manner and this will result in a calmer mind.

Many young athletes haven’t yet do develop the proper life coping skill, especially when they go through specific issues in their lives. They need to solve their problems in a more constructive manner. The team should designate someone who young athletes can talk to. If the problem is related to the lack of quality sleep, the person should be knowledge enough to address the matter. If young athletes don’t have the proper life coping skills, they won’t be able to deal with particular issues in life, which results in poor sleep quality. Coaches and parents should function as effective adults by showing solutions to problems. This will dramatically improve the sleep quality.