Why We Sleep

Figure 10: Sleep Loss and Sports Injury

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Sports teams pay millions of dollars to hugely expensive players, lavishing all
manner of medical and nutritional care on their human commodities to augment
their  talent.  Yet  the  professional  advantage  is  diluted  several-fold  by  the  one
ingredient few teams fail to prioritize: their players’ sleep.
Even teams that are aware of sleep’s importance before a game are surprised
by my declaration of the equally, if not more, essential need for sleep in the days
after a game. Post-performance sleep accelerates physical recovery from common
inflammation, stimulates muscle repair, and helps restock cellular energy in the
form of glucose and glycogen.
Prior  to  giving  these  teams  a  structured  set  of  sleep  recommendations  that
they can put in practice to help capitalize on the full potential of their athletes, I
provide  proof-of-concept  data  from  the  National  Basketball  Association  (NBA),
using  the  measured  sleep  of  Andre  Iguodala,  currently  of  my  local  team,  the
Golden State Warriors. Based on sleep-tracker data, figure 11 is the difference in
Iguodala’s  performance  when  he’s  been  sleeping  more  than  eight  hours  a  night,
relative to less than eight hours a night:
XII