Accuracy
Accuracy is an integral part of success in many sports. Hitting a passing shot down the line in tennis, scoring a basketball shot, hitting a bullseye in darts, and kicking a field goal in rugby all require accuracy. The difference between winning and losing in sport can be minuscule, and even the slightest of errors can have a major impact on the outcome of an event.
Restricted Sleep Studies
Edwards and Waterhouse (2009) completed a study investigating the effect of restricted sleep on the accuracy of dart throwing. The researchers compared the performance of 60 participants after a night of normal sleep (7-8 hours), with their performance after a night of restricted sleep (3-4 hours).
Participants threw 20 darts at a target for each test. They received a higher score for a dart landing closer to the centre. 10 points was given for hitting the bullseye, with the score reducing to 1 point for the outer ring (see image). A score of 0 was given for missing the board completely. Restricted sleep led to a 14% drop in performance. Participants were also 1.3 times more likely to miss the target completely, and were more inconsistent.
Restricted sleep led to a 14% drop in performance. Participants were also 1.3 times more likely to miss the target completely, and were more inconsistent.
Reyner and Horne (2013) studied how restricted sleep effected the serving ability of 16 semi-professional tennis players. The task was to serve 40 balls from anywhere behind the service line and to hit at a pre-defined target (see image). The first shots 10 were discounted to allow for a warm-up.
A serve was considered accurate of it landed in the target and missed the net. The type of serve (e.g. speed or spin) was not important. The goal was simply to land the ball into the target area. Participants were tested after normal sleep (6.5 to 8 hours) and after restricted sleep (5 hours). After restricted sleep, target hits dropped by 40%.
Sleep Extension Studies
A similar study by Schwartz and Simon (2015) also looked at tennis serving accuracy, but focused on the effects of sleep extension rather than sleep deprivation. They measured the participant’s sleep habits for a week to gain a baseline measure, and established they slept on average 7.14 hours per night.
After restricted sleep, target 'hits' dropped by 40%.
Sleep extension of 1.71 hours improved serving accuracy from 35.7% to 41.8%.
For the following week, the participants were instructed to try and increase their sleep to 9 hours per night. They actually managed to extend their sleep to 8.85 hours per night, and the increase in sleep (1.71 hours) improved their serving accuracy from 35.7% to 41.8%.
Sleep extension was also shown to improve the free-throw and 3 point shooting accuracy of a Stanford University basketball team. Mah, Mah, Kezirian, and Dement (2011) firstly established baseline sleep patterns over a 2-4 week period.
This was followed by a 5-7 week period where the participants were instructed to sleep as much as possible (at night), with the aim of achieving at least 10 hours per night. Sleep increased from 7.8 (baseline) to 10.4 (sleep extension) hours per night. The additional sleep led to an increase in free-throw success and 3 point shooting during a practice session by 9% and 9.2% respectively.
Sleep extension of 1.71 hours improved serving accuracy from 35.7% to 41.8%.
MODULE SLEEP
The impact on performance
The moral of the story
The results suggest that sleep deprivation decreases performance accuracy, while sleep extension increases it. This finding is especially important for athletes in sports where success is heavily influenced by accuracy, e.g. darts, tennis, golf, bowling, shooting, etc, etc, etc. There are plenty! If accuracy is important in your sport, then take care of your sleep management.
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References
Edwards, B.J, & Waterhouse, J. (2009). Effects of one night of partial sleep deprivation upon diurnal rhythms of accuracy and consistency in throwing darts. Chronobiology International, 26 (4), 756-768.
Mah, C.D., Mah, K.E., Kezirian, E.J, & Dement, W.C. (2011). The effects of sleep extension on the athletic performance of collegiate basketball players. Sleep (34), 7, 943-950.
Reyner, L.A., & Horne, J.A. (2013). Sleep restriction and serving accuracy in performance tennis players, and effects of caffeine. Psychology and Behaviour, 120 (4), 93-96.
Schwartz, J., & Simon, R.D. (2015). Sleep extension improves serving accuracy: A study with college varsity tennis players. Physiology & Behaviour, 151, 541-544. Chronobiology International, 31 (10), 1160-1168.