Sleep for Athletes: How Much Do You Need and How Can You Improve It?

When people think about recovery and performance, newer or more attention-grabbing strategies such as ice baths, saunas and red light therapy often come to mind. Yet one of the most powerful recovery tools is also one of the most basic: sleep.

Getting enough high-quality sleep is a cornerstone of recovery and performance for many elite athletes. LeBron James is reported to sleep around 8–10 hours per night, while Erling Haaland reportedly gets approximately 11 hours across the day, including naps.

Training provides the stimulus for adaptation. Sleep helps create the conditions in which the body and brain can respond to that stimulus.

It supports physical recovery, immune function, learning, memory, mood, reaction time, decision-making and the consolidation of sport-specific skills. Despite this, sleep is often one of the first things athletes sacrifice when training must fit around work, study, travel, family commitments and social life.

So, how much sleep does an athlete actually need - and what practical steps can help improve it?

How much sleep do athletes need?

As a general starting point:

• Most adults should aim for around 7 - 9 hours of good-quality sleep each night

• Teenage athletes generally need around 8 - 10 hours each night

These ranges are useful guidelines rather than perfect targets for every individual.

Some athletes may feel and perform better with more sleep, particularly during periods of:

• Increased training volume

• Competition

• Travel

• Injury rehabilitation

• Illness

• High work or study demands

In one study involving approximately 175 elite athletes, the average amount of sleep athletes reported needing to feel rested was 8.3 hours. This suggests that while 7 - 9 hours remains a reasonable guideline, some athletes may need to aim towards the upper end - or occasionally beyond it - to feel fully recovered.

Do not become fixated on one perfect number

Sleep duration matters, but the number of hours you record does not tell the whole story.

Two athletes may both sleep for eight hours and feel very different the next day. Sleep quality, timing, consistency, stress, training load, and individual sleep requirements all influence how restorative that sleep is.

Instead of focusing only on one number, ask yourself:

• Do I usually wake feeling rested?

• Can I maintain energy and concentration throughout the day?

• Am I recovering well between training sessions?

• Am I regularly sleepy during work, study or training?

• Has my mood, motivation or performance changed?

• Do I feel that I need significantly more sleep on rest days?

Your individual response matters more than chasing a supposedly perfect score.

Why athletes may struggle to get enough sleep

Athletes can be particularly vulnerable to short or disrupted sleep.

Common challenges include:

• Early-morning training

• Late-night training or competition

• Increased body temperature after evening exercise

• Muscle soreness or pain

• Post-exercise alertness

• Travel and jet lag

• Irregular training schedules

• Long commutes home

• Late rehydration and recovery meals

• Work, school or university commitments

  
  

An early session may require waking before the athlete has had enough sleep, while a late session can delay the time they feel ready for bed.

Even once training has finished, the athlete may still need to travel home, shower, prepare food, eat, rehydrate, organise equipment and complete work or study tasks.

This is why simply telling an athlete to “sleep more” is not always helpful. The barriers need to be identified and addressed within the context of their actual schedule.

What can inadequate sleep affect?

Poor sleep may influence how athletes feel, train and perform.

The effect of one disrupted night will vary, and athletes should not assume that one poor sleep score means they will automatically perform badly.

However, when short or poor-quality sleep becomes a repeated pattern, it can make it harder to train consistently and recover from the work being completed.

Practical strategies to improve sleep

You do not need to overhaul your entire routine at once.

Start with one or two changes that are realistic enough to repeat consistently.

1. Maintain a relatively consistent routine

Where possible, keep your sleep and wake times within approximately one hour each day, including on rest days.

A consistent schedule helps reinforce the body’s natural sleep–wake rhythm and may make it easier to feel sleepy and alert at more predictable times.

This does not mean your schedule must be identical every day. Athletes often have changing training times, competitions and travel demands. The goal is to reduce unnecessary variation where possible.

Getting natural light in the morning can also help reinforce the body’s circadian rhythm. This may be as simple as going outside shortly after waking, walking to work or eating breakfast near natural light.

2. Build a short wind-down routine

It can be difficult to move directly from training, work, studying or scrolling into restful sleep.

A wind-down routine gives the body and mind time to transition.

Your routine does not need to be long or complicated. It could include:

• Reading a paper book

• Gentle stretching

• Breathing exercises

• Practising mindfulness

• Writing down tomorrow’s tasks

• Preparing clothes or equipment for the next day

• Dimming the lights

• Avoiding highly stimulating content before bed

Choose activities that genuinely help you feel calmer rather than following a routine simply because it is promoted as the “perfect” sleep protocol.

3. Plan ahead for late training and competition

Evening sessions may delay sleep because of increased body temperature, muscle soreness, post-exercise alertness, travel home and the need to refuel and rehydrate.

While late sessions cannot always be avoided, the time between finishing training and getting into bed can often be made more efficient.

Before leaving for training, consider:

• Preparing your recovery meal or snack in advance

• Packing the fluid you need afterwards

• Organising your clothes and equipment for the next morning

• Having a clear transport plan

• Completing essential work or study earlier in the day

• Fuelling adequately before and during the session

A strong pre-session fuelling plan may reduce the amount of food needed immediately before bed, while still ensuring recovery needs are met.

The goal is not to skip recovery nutrition to get to sleep faster. It is to reduce avoidable delays and make your post-session routine easier to complete.

4. Use naps strategically

Naps can be useful when nighttime sleep has been restricted or when training demands are particularly high.

They may be helpful:

• After early-morning training

• Following travel

• After a disrupted night of sleep

• During periods of increased training load

• Between sessions on a double-training day

A short nap of approximately 20 minutes may improve alertness while reducing the likelihood of waking from deeper sleep and feeling groggy.

When more time is available, a longer nap of approximately 90 minutes may allow time for a more complete sleep cycle.

Napping may also support learning, strategy and the development of sport-specific skills. However, naps should ideally complement nighttime sleep rather than routinely replacing it.

Athletes who struggle to fall asleep at night may need to experiment with the duration and timing of their naps.

5. Consider your nutrition. But start with the foundations

Nutrition may support sleep, but it cannot fully compensate for an inconsistent routine, insufficient time in bed or an environment that makes sleep difficult.

Start by ensuring you are eating enough across the day and adequately fuelling your training.

Going to bed extremely hungry may disrupt sleep, while a very large or uncomfortable meal immediately before bed may also make it harder to settle.

An evening meal containing both carbohydrate and protein can support recovery while helping athletes meet their overall energy and nutrient needs.

Potential options that have been explored in sleep research include:

• An evening meal containing carbohydrate and protein

• Two kiwifruit around one hour before bed

• Tart cherry juice consumed in the morning and evening

These are possible additions—not guaranteed sleep solutions.

The most useful approach will depend on the athlete’s training schedule, total energy intake, preferences, gastrointestinal comfort and recovery needs.

6. Review your caffeine intake

Caffeine can support alertness and exercise performance, but it may also affect sleep.

Responses are highly individual and depend on factors including:

• Sensitivity to caffeine

• The dose consumed

• Timing

• Frequency of use

• Other caffeine consumed throughout the day

• Habitual intake

• Genetics

• The athlete’s current sleep status

There is no single caffeine cut-off time that works for every athlete.

Someone who is highly sensitive may need to stop caffeine much earlier than someone who metabolises it quickly. A small coffee may also have a very different effect from a high-dose pre-workout supplement.

Test changes during a lower-priority training period rather than immediately before an important competition.

You could begin by recording:

• What time you consumed caffeine

• The approximate dose

• How easily you fell asleep

• Whether you woke during the night

• How rested you felt the following morning

Use this information to develop a personal cut-off time rather than applying a universal rule.

7. Track your sleep without obsessing over it

Wearable devices can provide useful information about sleep duration, timing and longer-term patterns.

However, their estimates are not perfectly accurate. They should be treated as one source of information rather than a definitive assessment of recovery.

Avoid allowing one poor score to determine how you expect to perform that day.

Instead, look at broader trends alongside:

• How rested you feel

• Daytime sleepiness

• Mood and concentration

• Training quality

• Recovery across the week

• Changes in motivation

• Illness or soreness

For some athletes, tracking improves awareness and helps identify patterns.

For others, constantly checking the data creates anxiety and makes sleep worse. In these situations, taking a break from the tracker may be more helpful than continuing to monitor every night.

When sleep remains a problem

Occasional poor sleep is normal.

However, it may be worth seeking support when sleep problems are persistent, regularly affect daily functioning or continue despite changes to your routine.

Speak with an appropriate healthcare professional if you regularly experience:

• Significant difficulty falling or staying asleep

• Excessive daytime sleepiness

• Loud snoring or disrupted breathing

• Repeated waking during the night

• Restless or uncomfortable legs

• Ongoing pain that disturbs sleep

• Anxiety about sleep

• A meaningful decline in mood or functioning

Sleep difficulties are not always caused by poor habits, and athletes should not feel that they have failed because basic sleep strategies have not solved the problem.

The take-home message

You do not need a perfect sleep routine.

Start with one or two changes you can repeat consistently:

• Maintain relatively similar sleep and wake times

• Get natural light in the morning

• Create a short wind-down routine

• Plan ahead for late training

• Use naps strategically

• Review your caffeine timing

• Support recovery with appropriate nutrition

• Use sleep data as a trend rather than a daily judgement

Most importantly, remember:

Sleep is not time away from training. It is part of the training and recovery process.

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