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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
DOI
10.1123/ijspp.2018-0107
Description
This is the final draft, after peer-review, of a manuscript published in International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance. The published version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2018-0107