Running and the Importance of Sleep

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Top Contributors - Kapil Narale  

Introduction

It is essential to get an adequate amount of sleep every night for human health. This would equate to 6-8 hours of sleep. Accumulating this much daily sleep has restorative effects on the immune system, function of the endocrine system, and cognitive performance. There are many important factors that are considered with good sleep health, including tiredness, sleep duration, sleep efficacy, sleep quality, and time to fall asleep (sleep latency). It is seen that poot sleep quality results in bad sleep. Restful and good sleep can help indicate a good sleep quality. Minimal tiredness the next day, a high sleep efficacy, and a low time to fall asleep can help indicate a restful sleep.

Sleep is also very important for athletes, as it plays an important role in physical, physiological, and cognitive performance. However, athletes are seen to obtain less rest due early rising times, possible injuries, and anxiety during heavy training periods and before competition. Less rest could also be caused by occupational, academic, social, and familial obligations.

It is seen that middle aged adults claim poorer sleep heath than younger adults, however younger adults experience a longer time to fall asleep, especially with the exposure to electronic devices before bedtime.

Also, with the use of electronic devices, such as TVs, computers, tablets, and smartphones, can result in poor sleep quality, disturbed sleep, and a lower sleep duration.

Further information on the effect of electronic devices can be found on the Blue light and the Effect on Sleep page.

Marathon Runners

In a study by Cook et al (2023), analysing a sample marathon runners from the 2016 London marathon, generally the age group of 18-39, it was found that marathoners had sleep duration between 6-8 hours, had a time to fall asleep of less than 15 minutes, mostly remained asleep throughout the night had a quality of sleep that was 'somewhat or very satisfying', and had no sleep-related medication use. The use of sleep tracking devices was uncommon, as was a high alcohol consumption (within 14 drinks per week, most had within 7 drinks per week). Most individuals also reported having within 2 caffeinated drinks per day. In addition, the majority of individuals claimed the use of electronic devices within 1 hour of bedtime everyday.

It was seem that males reported a lower sleep duration than females, while females had a higher use of sleep-related medications.

There were significant differences noticed between young adult (18-39 years) and middle (40-64 years) age groups for many sleep health qualities. Middle aged adults had higher overall sleep problems, which seems to have been caused by a higher total sleep time duration, poor sleep satisfaction, and more issues remaining asleep throughout the night. In the middle-aged adults, it was noted that they may have increased stress or medical problems contributing to their disturbed sleep. Younger adults had a longer time to fall asleep, which may be a contribution of differing lifestyle actors such as the use of caffeine, alcohol, and technology such as electronic devices and sleep trackers.

Runners who completed the marathon with a slower pace than predicted had a significantly more disturbed or discontinuous sleep throughout the night. There was a significant difference in maintaining continual sleep between males and females,, although females did experience more issues.

It is seen that marathoners who have a slower marathon finish time is associated with a longer time to fall asleep. It is also seen that marathoners with a shorter sleep duration and a more pronounced difficulty with sleep had a longer marathon completion time.

Effects of Sleep Loss

Sleep loss can have a negative effect on athletes' physical performance. It has been noted that total sleep deprivation has lead to a decrease in endurance performance. Partial Sleep Deprivation (PSD) has shown a reduced time to exhaustion. There are difering views and results obtained from studies regarding the effect of PSD. Some studies have shown there running to exhaustion was not affected by PSD.

The loss of sleep has negative effects such as a heightened perceptual effort, and decreased emotional and cognitive function. The reduced cognitive function can be accompanied with a reduced psychomotor performance, via decreased vigilance, accuracy, and alertness. There can be a changed mood state, which can be involved int he reduced endurance performance. Rating of perceived exertion can also be skewed in the presence of PSD or TSD.

The study comparing runners with PSD and control condition of runners getting 8 hours of sleep found that the controls were able to run a further distance, and at a greater speed compared to the PSD condition. There was a significant effect for the control condition when considering parameters such as HR, VE, and VO2. There was no significant effect of sleep on the lactate produced during the runs between the control and PSD conditions. The PSD condition had an overall lower oral temperature at rest, compared to the control condition. Sleepiness, stress, and fatigue were higher in the PSD condition. There were no significant effects of either sleep condition on muscle soreness. The RPE scores were significantly higher in the PSD condition than the control condition. Motivation had no significant difference between the two groups. When considering mood, it was shown that depression, confusion, fatigue, and anxiety were increased, with a decrease in vigor after the PSD condition, at rest and after exercise. Reaction time is seen to be lower in the control group after exercise compared to the PSD condition.

The study indicated that pacing and endurance performance was greatly affected after the PSD condition. It was observed that mentally fatiguing conditions and an increased perceived exertion negatively impacted physical performance. This was seen in the PSD condition, with a decrease in the distance run, and the pacing characteristic of the runner. Cognitive processes were also affected with PSD. There was a deficit in attentional abilities with the PSD condition receiving only 4 hours of sleep. Decision making during rest and after self-paced exercise was also affected in the PSD condition.

Caffeine

An increased daily use of caffeine was related to a lower total sleep duration. However, daily affeine use (and weekly alcohol use) led to a faster marathon completion time.

Effects on Cardiorespiratory Health

Sleep deprivation, even for only one night, does have effects on cardiorespiratory health. Functions such as heart rate (HR), minute ventilation (VE), oxygen consumption (VO2), decreased within the duration of exercise to exhaustion. However, measurements remained unchanged with submaximal exercise to exhaustion.

Blue-light and the effect on sleep

To read about the overall effects of blue-light on sleep, see the page Blue Light and the Effect on Sleep.

As mentioned on this page, blue light may have an effect on performance, such as cognitive performance, alertness, reaction times, accuracy, daytime dysfunction, heart rate response, and handgrip strength. In general this may be beneficial for athletes.

However, with the increased use of electronic devices and the poor effect of the blue light on sleep, athletes would need to be more cautious and cognisant of the amount and duration of exposure to blue light, especially before sleeping. The exposure to blue-light and poor sleep can lead to increased fatigue, therefore poor performance. This should ideally be minimized in the athletic training or competing population.

In marathon runners, the use of electronic devices before bedtime lead to a longer time to fall asleep, and a longer marathon completion time. A longer time to fall asleep in turn lead to a longer marathon completion time.

More frequent use of electronic devices in the hour before sleeping led to a longer time to fall asleep. Those marathoners who used electronic devices within an hour before falling asleep also had a longer marathon finish time. These factors were significantly associated with a poorer marathon completion time. However, its noted that differing types of electronic devices may have varying effects on time to fall asleep.

Sleep Trackers

In addition to blue-light from electronic devices being used before bed-time, the use of sleep trackers can have a significant negative effect on sleep health in marathon runners. Runners who used a sleep tracker had a lower sleep satisfaction rating.

Orthosomnia can be quite prevalent in the sleep health of those marathoners using sleep trackers. This may be displayed as individuals focusing more on their sleep quality, and therefore resulting in a disturbed sleep. Marathon runners, or even endurance athletes, may be leaning towards orthosomnia, due to the likelihood of them paying more attention to the details or training, sleep, and lifestyle factors. The sleep trackers could also be providing inaccurate data to the uders, giving them the percetion of worse sleep quality.

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