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USA Today: Sleep monitors could help U.S. players rest easy during World Cup

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Our friends at EXOS (formerly Athletes’ Performance) are working with the US Men’s National Soccer team and recently spoke with USA Today about their work in getting the team ready for 2014 Fifa World Cup:

Since the start of training camp last month, the players have been wearing wristbands that detect their sleep and wake periods, and characterize the quantity and quality of their sleep. That data are analyzed and applied practically.

If a player is struggling during training, was it because he woke up several times during the night? Or was it because he slept with his iPhone or TV on or used his laptop shortly before bed?

“It’s an interesting concept,” the team’s fitness director, Masa Sakihana, told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday. “Sleep can affect your reaction time and your performance.”

Incorporated into the program developed for the US players, EXOS have been using Fatigue Science Readibands to gather athlete sleep and fatigue data.  Read more about their approach in preparing the US Men’s National Team for their rigorous game and travel schedule for this year’s World Cup from USA Today.

Sleep, football players, and the NFL Scouting Combine’s 40-yard dash

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In 2010, Stanford University sleep and performance researcher, Cheri Mah, studied the effects of sleep extension on collegiate football players and determined that after several weeks of extending their time in bed from 6-9 hours per night (average) to 10 hours per night, the group was able to complete their timed 40-yard dash 2.1% faster. Such a small percentage increase in performance for an event that is mere seconds long may not seem like a significant improvement, but we were curious what it might mean for the college athletes participating in this week’s NFL Scouting Combine:

At the 2013 Combine, the fastest recorded 40-yard dash was completed by Marquise Goodwin in 4.27 seconds.

What if Marquise Goodwin ordinarily spent 6-9 hours in bed and maintained that same routine right up to the 2013 NFL Combine?

And what if every other participating college football player also routinely spent 6-9 hours in bed and in the 6 weeks leading up to the 2013 combine, changed nothing about their training or routines other than extending their time in bed to 10 hours per night?

What would a 2.1% increase in sprint performance mean to this group of the NFL hopefuls? For the top competitors, this improvement would potentially knock Goodwin from 1st for 7th place in the 40-yard dash. But, even more significantly, for the players sitting lower in the rankings, a 2.1% increase in performance for the 40-yard dash could mean a jump from 100th place to 45th place.

As for first place Marquise Goodwin, if we were to let him enjoy the same extended sleep period as the rest of his competitors, a 2.1% increase in performance would not only allow him to maintain his first place finish, but potentially give him a record breaking performance as well. The 40-yard dash record at the combine is 4.24 seconds (since electronic timing was introduced in 1999) held by Rondel Menedez (1999) and Chris Johnson (2008) – Marquise’s 2.1% increase would set his time at 4.18 seconds.

We know very well that successful athletic performance results from a number of factors – not limited to coaching, nutrition, training, and personal motivation – but all things considered, if consistent and quality sleep can help provide an edge in short sprint performance, then sleep or lack of sleep could potentially mean the difference between a record-breaking or sub-optimal finish at events like the NFL Scouting Combine.

Interested in learning more? Check out this popular ‘Sleep to be an all-star‘ infographic.

10 Reasons sports teams should use Fatigue Science technology

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Guest post: Dr. Jonathan Bloomfield, Sleep & Performance Consultant

Sleep has a very measurable impact on physical and cognitive performance – both of which need to be consistently in top form to sustain competitiveness at an elite athletic level. Studies show that an optimally rested athlete can run faster and make smarter split second decisions.

Understanding sleep to improve athletic performance is not as simple as just telling players to sleep 8 hours a night. Fatigue Science Performance Consultant, Dr. Jonathan Bloomfield, lists 10 reasons why sleep is important for athletes and why he has been using Fatigue Science technology for over four years with English Premier League and International Rugby teams to help optimize player performance:

  1. Athlete’s essentials: All players need to train, fuel, and recover – the three essential pillars of performance. Most clubs know how to address measurements and best practices around training and nutrition, Fatigue Science can help manage the third aspect.
  2. Get a bigger picture: Being a professional athlete is a 24/7 job. Coaches and backroom staff are in contact with players for usually 10-15 hours per week. If you can understand how the team is sleeping, you start to get a bigger picture of how this aspect of training might affect their on-the-field performance.
  3. Sleep = Recovery: Sleep is crucial to athletic recovery – including physiological, biochemical, and cognitive restoration. If not properly managed, player mood, effort, and technical performance will all suffer and they will be more susceptible to injuries and reduced performance.
  4. Players are human: 20-25% of UK and US populations suffer from some form of sleep disorder, many of which are undiagnosed. That’s potentially ¼ of your squad. If you can profile for sleep disorders in your team, your medical staff can intervene to address them.
  5. Stay in shape: Poor sleep consistency impacts body-weight. Well rested players are able to maintain optimal body weight, whereas those who have poor patterns will have an imbalance in their appetite hormones and metabolism – this can result in craving all the wrong foods at all the wrong times.
  6. Late Games = No Sleep?: Many players report having serious difficulties sleeping after evening games. Do you know which players are suffering worst from this and what impact it has on the next fixture? What’s the best possible training and travelling schedule to stick to, recognizing that sleep plays a central role to your team’s success?
  7. Up with the larks: As a coach, you might like to get up early and get things done before breakfast, but young players simply don’t have the same body-clocks and have a much greater sleep requirement. Dragging them out of bed for a pre-dawn practice might be terribly counter-productive. Fatigue Science technology can help schedule practice and travel to ensure your players are getting sufficient rest between practices and games.
  8. Most vulnerable: Your youngest players (esp. 18-22 year olds) often come out of their adolescence with a high volume of sleep debt as a result of growing into young men or women. Get some insight into your younger players’ sleep habits and circadian rhythms to help educate them how to re-pay the debt so they can perform their best.
  9. Even good sleepers have their challenges: Major life changes that require coping with change can affect sleep. New babies, family stress, strained relationships, moving house, living overseas, all add a significant stresses that can affect a player’s ability to get good quantity and quality sleep. It’s important to help understand when there is a sleep issue and how to address it.
  10. Real data: Studies show that a person’s ability to judge their own sleep is flawed. Athlete’s participating in a study in the US self-reported (on average) 70 minutes more sleep than they were actually obtaining. Using Readiband technology allows teams to start managing fatigue and recovery – starting with real data.

With Fatigue Science technology, you can work with your players to create a full profile and reduce injury risk, increase mood and focus, create better schedules, and provide them with real insights on how their sleep is affecting their on-the-field performance.

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For athletes sleep is about more than just winning a game

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We often talk about the importance of managing athletes sleep and schedules to optimize a professional athlete’s performance at game time, but the less immediate benefits of ensuring players are rested can be seen in the length of their careers and likelihood of health-issues or injuries.

Yes, a strategically rested basketball player will be 9.3% more likely to make that three-point shot at the buzzer and a baseball player more likely to swing at the right time to hit that fastball – but there is evidence to show that athletes who pay attention to sleep suffer less injuries and have longer careers.

A study conducted at the University of California looked at whether over-scheduling and lack of sleep contributed to injuries in youth athletes and concluded that fatigue-related injuries were related to sleeping less than 6 hours the night before a game. Additionally, the study concluded that a number of factors, including activity volume, intensity, sleep time and recovery time should be considered in order to optimize the player safety when scheduling sporting events. Another study, conducted by sleep researcher Dr. Christopher Winter, examined the fatigue levels of NFL and MLB players and found a relation between athlete sleepiness and career longevity in both leagues.

When an athlete is not getting sufficient sleep, the effects on personal performance and health are threefold: First, fatigue affects reaction time, making a tired athlete slower to react to a potential hit on the ice or the field. Second, fatigue affects the body’s immune system, making players more susceptible to bouts of illness. Third, shorter sleep periods do not provide the body with sufficient time to regenerate cells and repair the abuse from workouts and games. Over time, game-earned injuries, health issues and the inability to fully recover can wear on an athlete and contribute to early retirement or career-ending injuries and performance failure.

In professional sports, season’s are lengthy and require careful planning to manage an athlete’s performance to reduce mid or end season fatigue. Including the post-season, NHL players can expect to play up to 34 weeks out of the year. It’s not much better for NBA, MLB and NFL players who, respectively, can see up to 32, 30, and 20 weeks of action in a season. Even Tiger Woods was fatigued by the end of this year’s PGA season.

For optimal sport performance and fatigue mitigation, it’s not just about how long you sleep, it’s also about when you sleep and how well you sleep. Factor in the long professional sport season, team travel and practice, and scheduling sleep to maximize the performance of a team or athlete becomes a complicated endeavour – but one that team management should examine for both the short and longer term performance of their athletes.

Check out this blog post to see which professional athletes are currently making sleep a priority.

SportTechie.com: Analyzing the sleep patterns of the Dallas Mavericks

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SportTechie.com reporter, Bryan Douglass, recently interviewed Fatigue Science founder, Pat Byrne, about our technology and it’s application in professional sports and human performance optimization:

The start of the NBA season has basketball fans smiling, but the rise of tech in support of better basketball has NBA owners smiling more. The influence of tech is growing, and we’ve seen more than a few headlines over the weeks leading into the 2013-14 season to prove the relationship is growing.

One of the more recent headlines comes from Dallas, where owner Mark Cuban – renowned supporter of the geek business model – has hired Fatigue Science to work with Dirk Nowitzki and the rest of the Mavericks. Founded in 2007, Fatigue Science offers services focused on “fatigue-related risk management and human performance optimization.” NBA players endure one of the most grueling schedules in professional sports, and Cuban, cognizant of the challenges his players face, is looking for a better way.

Read the full article