Sleep is an integral component of optimizing athletic performance. It affects our physical, cognitive and health functioning – yet athletes frequently neglect it as part of their training regimens.
Sleep deprivation can contribute to early onset fatigue, reduced anaerobic power and sprint speed, decreased accuracy, and poor match outcomes. But increasing sleep can improve match outcomes!
The Night Before a Match
Sleep optimization has become an increasing focus in training programs of elite athletes in major international sports, due to its strong correlation with various measures of athletic performance like reaction time, accuracy, endurance and reaction time perception of exertion; it remains less clear however whether these improvements extend further toward anaerobic power strength or sprinting performance; however the pathways linking sleep with these various outcomes likely involve changes not only to substrate availability perception of exertion reaction time but also cognitive speed and executive function.
Studies have demonstrated that even one night of complete sleep deprivation can negatively impact numerous human performance measures, including attention, reaction time, processing speed and inhibitory control – potentially impacting decision-making during athletic competition. Recovery can often occur quickly with sufficient restful sleep as many factors affecting performance such as mood and vigilance remain present in sleep as they do during physical exercise.
Due to this reason, athletes should prioritize healthy sleeping patterns not just before an important game but on an ongoing basis. This means getting adequate restful slumber each night leading up to it and taking naps where possible to achieve 8-9 hours each night.
Athletes must ensure they consume a balanced diet that excludes sugary and high-fat foods that could cause digestive issues that interfere with sleep. Furthermore, athletes should refrain from stimulants like caffeine, nicotine and alcohol that could disrupt restful slumber.
Though sleep optimization is essential to athletic performance and recovery, many athletes struggle to do it consistently. This may be in part due to culture in many sports wherein tolerating poor sleep is seen as a badge of honor; or other factors such as competing scholastic demands in younger athletes as well as fluctuating training loads and travel schedules affecting them both directly and indirectly. With greater awareness, knowledge about sleep’s effect on performance and recovery impact on performance as well as strong commitment from coaches and team staff; poor sleep can be reduced among athletes of all ages.
The Week Before a Match
Professional tennis players face an arduous schedule filled with travel to tournaments; uncertainty regarding match times and locations; endless hotel rooms; matches lasting two hours to five days or longer; evening “slots” that last late into the night – all which can compromise sleep opportunities – which is detrimental to their performance and recovery.
Lack of sleep can drastically diminish both motor and cognitive performance, hindering an athlete’s ability to perform at their best in competitions. Sleep habits play a vital role not just in preparation for big matches but in general; developing them early is especially crucial. A few simple steps can help ensure you’re getting quality rest the week prior, such as keeping regular bedtime routines, not checking phones/devices before sleeping, avoiding spicy or calorific food/beverages late in the day and drinking plenty of water throughout the night.
As an additional strategy, taking a short post-lunch nap may also help enhance performance and serve accuracy for those with morning chronotypes. A recent study demonstrated this when varsity tennis players extended their average weekly sleep duration by nine hours: their serving accuracy increased by 40% while daytime sleepiness reduced.
Although extended sleep has shown positive benefits in these athletes, this study should be read with caution; actigraphy cannot reliably measure sleep quality and this research relied on subjective reporting in a daily diary. Still, the findings from this and similar studies indicate that improving overall player sleep quality before an important match may improve performance and recovery.
At our research institute, we conducted a recent study wherein we monitored the sleep-wake cycles (SWB) of college varsity tennis players during a seven-night analysis period prior to state grade competition matches. The results demonstrated that sleep quality, particularly percentage of restlessness (as measured by SFI), was a strong predictor of match performance; individual player reports with their SWB metrics and match results can be found in the supplementary information files of this article.
The Day of a Match
Lack of sleep can have a dramatic impact on tennis performance, so it is vital to include quality sleep as part of your training regime alongside nutrition and exercise. Adequate rest helps increase mental alertness, reaction time and motor coordination while aiding recovery and peak performance after each match.
But it’s important to keep in mind that even with proper sleep and nutrition habits in place, not all athletes are able to maximize their performance. Due to high competition levels or physical demands of their sport or other factors such as anxiety, some athletes experience significant drops in performance post-match compared to others.
One factor contributing to this can be an athlete’s circadian rhythm being disrupted, often as a result of late night matches, by an extended finishing time for one. When this occurs, their internal biological clock becomes disorganised from its natural state resulting in insufficient rest for them and it becomes impossible for them to get adequate sleep at night. Therefore it is advisable for all athletes to avoid playing late-night matches so their bodies receive adequate restful slumber.
An effective strategy for improving tennis performance has been found in increasing sleep duration the week before a late-night match. One study conducted with college basketball players who extended their objectively measured sleep by 1.6 hours reported an increase of 9% in free throw accuracy as well as 36%-41% improvement in serving accuracy, psychomotor vigilance and reaction times as a result of the increased time sleep duration.
Last but not least, it is crucial that athletes remember to give themselves a day off between matches to relax and recover properly. They can still engage in dynamic stretching or light cardio such as swimming as long as their energy reserves have not been depleted too severely. Hydrate90(r) effervescent tablets provide athletes with an easy and convenient way to add key doses of electrolytes directly into their water before competing or working out.
On the day after a match, it is essential that you replenish all the carbohydrates used during play while also adding some protein for continued recovery. Furthermore, it is also crucial that you quickly rehydrate as soon as possible after each game by drinking water or sports drinks.
The Day After a Match
After a match, it is vitally important that your body recovers well by resting, sleeping and eating well, taking time out for relaxation and renewing its energy stores. Doing this allows your muscles to heal any muscle tears as well as prepare you for future matches. Also use this time to reflect upon what went well or didn’t go so well during your performance – this will allow you to become better as time progresses.
Recovery techniques have grown increasingly popular among tennis players and practitioners who work with them (tennis coaches, certified tennis performance specialists, physical therapists, athletic trainers). Their goal is to limit fatigue severity, speed recovery from fatigue and improve adaptation during training/competition.
Sleep was discovered to be one of the key factors affecting tennis match performance and recovery in a recent study, conducted with male and female junior tennis players using sleep diaries and wrist-worn actigraphy devices to track sleep-wake behaviors for seven days/nights prior to a state grade competition match in Florida state grade competition tournaments. Match analytics were collected during and post match, too.
Results indicated that lack of uninterrupted sleep the night before a match had a detrimental impact on performance, with second serve points won being most severely impacted. This likely stems from the increased stress and workload placed on the body during matches – leading to increases in cortisol production as well as decreased blood flow to muscles – although it should also be noted that previous research had demonstrated how compensatory sleep before competition can positively influence performance levels in this regard.
Important to keep in mind is that this study’s results were drawn from a small sample and may not represent the wider teenage population. Furthermore, actigraphy as a recording method only shows moderate reliability compared to PSG; so these findings must be interpreted with caution. Additional investigation needs to be conducted on how sleep affects match performance as well as its role during competition week and day prioritisation.