How to Enhance Sleep for Athletes? A Narrative Review of Sleep Hygiene and Sleep Extension Practices

Abstract Purpose of Review Sleep is becoming widely accepted as a crucial for athletes, with potential impacts on both performance and recovery, yet despite this, sleep amongst athletes is commonly suboptimal. This review aims firstly to summarise underlying reasons why athletes commonly present with poor sleep with a view to informing subsequent interventions, and secondly, to summarise sleep hygiene and sleep extension practices to potentially offset this, with consideration for the content and delivery approach of such interventions. Recent Findings Approaches to sleep hygiene education should be individualised where possible, with a view towards a collaborate process involving both athlete and coach. Contemporary methods of sleep hygiene education, such as media messaging, may warrant further investigation within an athletic cohort. Summary Education on sleep hygiene factors may be a beneficial intervention if athletes are presenting with sub-optimal sleep according to normative values. Both sleep hygiene and sleep extension have been shown to be successful strategies in improving both sleep factors and athlete performance, yet further longitudinal studies are needed in this remit to determine optimal methods of maintaining such improvements.