Extended Sleep Enhances Athletic Performance

A new study has revealed that sleep extension is beneficial to athletic performance, reaction time, vigour, fatigue and mood in collegiate basketball players.

A new study has revealed that athletes can benefit from sleeping for longer time as it helps to improve athletic performance, reaction time, vigour, fatigue and mood in collegiate basketball players.

The study involved 11 healthy students on the Stanford University men's varsity basketball team and was conducted during two basketball seasons from 2005 to 2008.

Sleep - Overview and Definition
Sleep is a behavioral state of restricted physical activity. It is controlled by our internal biological clock.

The players maintained their habitual sleep-wake schedule for a baseline period of two to four weeks during the NCAA basketball season, sleeping for an average of less than seven hours per night.

The following period of sleep extension lasted five to seven weeks, during which the participants obtained as much nocturnal sleep as possible with a minimum goal of 10 hours in bed per night.

Objective mean total sleep time during sleep extension was nearly 8.5 hours per night.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the tissue in the back of the throat collapses completely blocking the airway. Obstructive sleep apnea is treated using continuous positive airway pressure.

Speed during 282-foot sprints improved significantly from 16.2 seconds at baseline to 15.5 seconds after sleep extension, and shooting accuracy increased significantly by nine percent on both free throws and three-point field goals.

Subjects also reported improved overall ratings of physical and mental well-being during practices and games.

Quiz on Sleep Disorder
The comfort of modern life comes at the cost of restful sleep! "Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone-Anthony Burgess" Scientifically it is proven that a good night's sleep is imperative for maintaining a balance between the physical, emotional and behavioral well-being of a person.

"Following multiple weeks of sleep extension, elite athletes demonstrated improvements in specific indicators of basketball athletic performance including higher shooting percentages and faster sprint times," said lead author Cheri D. Mah, MS, researcher at the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory in Stanford, Calif.

"Subjects also demonstrated faster reaction time, decreased levels of daytime sleepiness, and mood improvements," he noted.

Sleeping Disorders
How many times have you stayed awake in the dead of the night counting sheep? If it is fairly often then you could be suffering from a sleep disorder!

The study appeared in the July 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

Source-ANI