Sleep Loss, Effects on Athletic Performance

Sleep has always been thought of as a critical factor for optimal performance in athletics. Research has established that sleep is an active physiological state and not a passive process and is as complex as wakefulness. Critical cognitive, immunological, and metabolic processes occur during sleep, but its direct relationship to athletic performance is still unproven.

Both sleep and athletic performance are extremely individual activities and are influenced by many factors and variables, making research on this subject difficult to perform. However, scientific evidence is ...