Sleep, dreams, and athletic performance

Abstract

Sleep is generally regarded as a valuable resource for psychological and physiological well-being. In recent years, sleep as a resource of recovery has increasingly been recognised as part of the preparation of peak performance—not only by athletes but also by coaches. In the previous chapter by Caia, Kelly, and Halson, the role, of sleep in maximizing performance in elite athletes was described. In the first part of this chapter we will review in more detail how sleep is measured and the basic methods of sleep recording. In the second part, interesting areas where sleep medicine and sport science are closely intertwined are presented. Anecdotal evidence about a bad night’s sleep prior to a sport event have been reported quite often; however, systematic surveys are scarce. Empirical data on poor sleep and distressing dreams before competition and their relation to competitive anxiety will be discussed. In the third part, the phenomenon of lucid dreaming will be introduced. A lucid dream is a dream in which the dreamer is aware of the dream state, and lucid dreamers are able to execute complex actions within the dream. The possible application of this phenomenon in sports (e.g., motor learning or psychophysiological correlates of dreaming as well as induction techniques for lucid dreams will be presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)