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Effects of a short daytime nap on shooting and sprint performance in high-level adolescent athletes
Citation
Suppiah, H. T., Low, C. Y., Choong, G., & Chia, M. (2018). Effects of a short daytime nap on shooting and sprint performance in high-level adolescent athletes. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 14(1), 76-82. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2018-0107
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of the research was to investigate the sport-specific performance effect of a brief afternoon nap on high-level Asian adolescent student-athletes that were habitually short sleepers. Methods: In the studies, participants were randomly assigned to a nap or non-nap (reading) condition. In the first study, 12 male shooters (13.8 ± 1.0 yrs) performed a shooting assessment (20 competition shots) with heart rate variability monitored during the assessment. In the second study, 19 male track & field athletes (14.8 ± 1.1 yrs) performed a 20m sprint performance assessment. Subjective measures of sleepiness and alertness were obtained in both studies. Results: The brief nap had no effect on any measure of shooting performance (p > 0.05) and autonomic function (p > 0.05) in shooters. However, fastest 20m sprint times increased significantly (p < 0.05) from 3.385 ± 0.128 sec to 3.411 ± 0.143 sec, with mean 2m times trending towards significance (p < 0.1) amongst the track & field athletes. No significant differences were observed in any other measures. Conclusions: The results of the research indicate varying effects of naps between sport-specific performance measures. Napping had no effect on shooting performance while a negative effect existed in 20-m sprint performance, potentially due to sleep inertia. Considering these findings, some caution is warranted when advocating naps for adolescent athletes.
Date Issued
2018
Publisher
Human Kinetics
Journal
International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance
DOI
10.1123/ijspp.2018-0107