The popular belief is that exercise will help you sleep deeper and enhances your mood. Does it matter how much exercise though? Not many studies have investigated well-trained athletes with respect to their sleep physiology, however a new study posted in the Journal of Sports Science has delved deeper into this topic. An abstract to this study can be found here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26406911?report=abstract
These researchers have investigated the changes in sleep, mood state and exercise performance as it pertains to well-trained cyclists that are participating in short-term intensified training. 13 highly-trained male cyclists underwent two 9-day periods of intense training while also undergoing a high or moderate carbohydrate nutrition before, during and after training. The sleep was measured every night using a wristwatch tracking the sleep/rest cycles. Moods were recorded and compared daily through mood-state questionnaires. Daily performances were measured with maximal oxygen uptake. Sleep quality, mood state and performance all suffered significantly within this 9-day intense training regimen.
This shows that intense training schedules are not optimal when looking at the sleep efficiency and quality, mood states, and performances among highly-trained athletes. In light of this study, it would be highly advised to mix the intense training schedules with more relaxed recovery training sessions. I hope more research is done on an optimal schedule with a mix of intense and recovery sessions where performance, sleep quality, and mood states are at their highest. I find this to be an interesting topic because as a college player I would like to perform at my highest but have high sleep quality and mood states which I feel suffer some due to our training schedules.
First I would like to say that I am glad it is not just me who has experienced these problems. On days of intensive training, my mood suffered and my sleep efficiency was terrible. I would wake up in the middle of the night due to soreness or pain from that day's workouts.
ReplyDeleteReading through the study I found a couple of questions I would ask for further research. Stress was not mentioned at all and through our class we have seen the effects of chronic stress on the human body as well as behavioral patterns. Because high intensity workouts place so much stress on our bodies, and I believe all collegiate athletes can agree that the stress of knowing about future intense workouts, practices, and especially the stress of games stay with you throughout the entire season. The other question I would ask is about their hydration levels. They spoke about the athlete's carbohydrate intake in the study but not a word about hydration. A lot of athletes, including myself, did not understand how much water we all lose during these high intensity workouts and are falling victim to unnecessary dehydration.
I really enjoyed reading this study and I am looking forward to seeing any future related studies. It is a little scary thinking about how sports have evolved and we have all evolved as athletes when we still have so many questions to be answered.
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