Developing Optimal Sleep Patterns to Improve College Athletes Athletic Performance

College athletes have a highly demanding schedule, which often interferes with their athletic performance due to lack of sleep. For college athletes to recover appropriately, optimal sleep patterns are essential for their physiological and psychological systems, or else they will not perform. College athletes have more going against them compared to the regular college student. Sports practice, strength and conditioning sessions, team meetings, travel for games, athletic training rehab, class schedule, and studies hours. Where does the athlete have time to eat and sleep? Luckily the athletes\u27 schedule is made up by the coach or chief of operations. It is up to them to sleep on time. As a strength and conditioning specialist, I know sleep is critical for athlete recovery and performance but how much sleep is the question that needs to be answered. Finding the correct amount of sleep for college athletes may lead to more effective practices, training sessions, and, most importantly, wins. The challenge with this is getting the athlete and coach to understand why optimal sleep is key for success, and often coaches make their lifting sessions at 5:00 or 6:00 AM to know the athlete did not go to bed on time, already setting them up for failure. Studies found higher-performing athletes are associated with total nocturnal sleep time than athletes who nap during the day and less at night.https://digitalcommons.jsu.edu/ce_jsustudentsymp_2021/1014/thumbnail.jp