Why Sleep Might Be the Most Overlooked Factor in Athletic Performance

If you've ever seen me wearing my "Gangsta Napper" shirt, I like to believe I genuinely own that title. Almost everyday, almost anywhere, I make it a point to try and get a nap in. Truthfully, I wish I got more sleep throughout the night, but things like stress, work and school always seem to disturb the peace. As I age closer to 40, I've realized that without quality habitual sleep, trying to do the same workouts I did in my 20's while feeling fatigue only increased my risk of injury. When people talk about sports performance, the conversation usually revolves around training intensity, nutrition, or recovery tools like ice baths and foam rollers. But in recent years, research has turned its focus toward something far simpler and often neglected: sleep.

The relationship between sleep and athletic performance isn’t just about “feeling rested.” Studies are uncovering links between chronic sleep deprivation and a higher risk of injuries, particularly musculoskeletal ones. Professional athletes are not the only ones who should care—anyone pushing their body, from weekend joggers to youth athletes, can be affected.

Sleep and Injury Risk: The Numbers That Matter

One of the most striking findings is the connection between sleep duration and injury rates. Across multiple studies, athletes consistently reporting seven hours or less of sleep per night for at least two weeks had about a 70% greater risk of injury compared to those sleeping more.

The flip side is just as important: in some studies, athletes getting over eight hours of sleep reduced their injury risk by more than half. That’s a staggering difference when you consider that the only variable was time spent asleep. Now that's not to say a single late night or restless evening can't make you feel crappy or make you vulnerable to making mistakes, but high injury risk climbs only after chronic sleep restriction, which suggests our bodies can absorb short-term disruptions but struggle when under long-term strain.

Beyond Energy: Why Sleep Shapes Resilience

Sleep influences far more than energy levels. For athletes, or anyone physically active, here’s where it matters most:

• Tissue recovery: Satellite cells are responsible for muscle growth, maintenance, and repair after injury. While sleep does not trigger these cells, it creates the ideal hormonal and metabolic environment for them to work. During deep sleep, levels of growth hormone rise and inflammation is better regulated, which allows satellite cells to fuse with damaged fibers more efficiently and support muscle regeneration. The cells donate their nuclei, which boosts the fibers’ capacity for protein synthesis and growth.

• Pain sensitivity: Experiments show sleep loss makes people more sensitive to pain. In fact, poor sleep often predicts next-day aches more reliably than pain predicts poor sleep the following night.

• Concussion and mental health: Suboptimal sleep has been linked to higher concussion risk and worsened anxiety or depression—factors that can increase susceptibility to injuries.

In other words, sleep isn’t just recharging energy; it’s recalibrating the nervous system, rebuilding tissue, and fine-tuning pain tolerance.

The Complex Puzzle of Performance

It’s tempting to think of sleep as the “magic bullet,” but the story is more nuanced. Adults today often juggle their sanity between working several jobs, being a parent, maybe furthering their education, watching the news—all of which can disturb sleep. For exercisers who are not giving themselves days off, sleep disturbances themselves can be an early warning sign of overtraining, a state where performance declines despite more effort.

That’s why experts suggest viewing sleep as one piece of a bigger puzzle. Nutrition, stress management, training load, and even self-esteem linked to performance all interact with how the body recovers. When several of these factors overlap—say, poor sleep combined with high stress and a heavy training schedule—the risk of injury compounds dramatically.

What Makes for “Good Sleep”?

I started to focus more on getting better sleep after I noticed that I seemed to peak in my athletic performance. Sleep researchers often use technical measures—latency, awakenings, efficiency to judge good sleep but here's a few things you can even note yourself...

• Are you falling asleep within 15 minutes?

• Do you stay asleep most of the night?

• Do you wake up more than once or twice briefly?

• Are you spending at least 85% of your time in bed actually asleep?

  
  

If these basics aren’t happening consistently, it may be a sign of suboptimal sleep. For athletes and fitness enthusiasts, that should raise the same red flag as persistent soreness or plateauing workouts. While melatonin supplements are often marketed as a quick fix, the science doesn’t back it up for most people. Melatonin only helps regulate your body’s sleep–wake clock, not deepen or repair sleep, and research shows it’s most effective for jet lag or shift workers—not for chronic poor sleep or injury prevention. In other words, it won’t replace the physiological benefits of consistent, natural sleep.

Instead... Try This

1. Keep a consistent schedule – Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends. This trains your body’s internal clock.

2. Control light exposure – Dim lights and avoid screens an hour before bed; in the morning, get natural light to reinforce your circadian rhythm.

3. Stop liquids and screens 2-3 hours before sleep - This will help keep you in bed and prevent unwanted bathroom trips. Screens emit blue light, which suppresses the production of melatonin

4. Create a wind-down ritual – Stretching, reading, or deep breathing helps signal to your body that it’s time to shift into recovery mode.

It’s not just about waking up fresh—it’s about lowering pain sensitivity, improving tissue repair, and buffering the body against the stresses of training. While no single factor determines injury risk, sleep is one of the simplest levers we can control. So next time someone insists that “sleep is for the weak,” just remember your gangster napper status in the streets, and own it.

For Your Consideration

Good sleep isn’t just luck—it’s something you can train for. Join my Stretch Before Bed 4-week course and learn simple, restorative movements to unwind, reset, and prepare your body for real rest.

Start My Sleep Journey

References

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