Each athlete treated at our Boulder Physical Therapy and Lafayette Physical Therapy clinics is asked to improve three areas (nutrition, exercise, and sleep) in order to recover from sports injuries and improve sports performance. Despite the marketing hype and social media postings these three areas overwhelming provide the best results and return of investment for athletes. A recent study highlights the importance of sleep for next day performance.
Hummel and colleagues published their study on the relationship between sleep and next day sports performance (J Strength Conditioning Research. 2025). Researchers included 174 division 1 football athletes whose weekly sleep was tracked using a smart ring. Athletes then completed 3 vertical jumps on a force plate to determine both maximum and average jump height. Surprisingly athletes only averaged 6.2 hours (plus or minus 1.1 hours) each night. The reported longer sleep durations were associated with improved weekly jumping performance.
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