Sleep and Performance in Professional Athletes

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Sleep is an essential human behavior that plays a key role in proper biopsychosocial development as well as short- and long-term biological, physical, psychological, and cognitive health. Sleep plays a key role in athletic performance, influencing an athlete’s ability to train, recover, and perform, as well as their overall wellness. Over the recent decade, the awareness of sleep’s import has penetrated just about every professional sport domain. The purpose of the review was to identify and synthesize the literature published within the past 5 years (2018–2022) that relates to sleep and performance in professional athletes. Literature related to nonprofessional, high-level athletes (e.g., collegiate; Olympic) was omitted as well as those associated with non-traditional professional sports (e.g., eSports). RECENT FINDINGS: Results from 38 articles were incorporated into this review, which covered (1) the sleep’s role in the training, physical injury prevention and recovery, competitive performance, and mental health of professional athletes, (2) common sleep problems and disorders in professional athletes, and (3) the impact of unique challenges from training, travel, competition, and other factors on sleep health. Additionally, we provide an orientation to utilized strategies and interventions to assist with sleep health in professional athletes, as well as conclude with a commentary on critical steps forward. SUMMARY: Sleep plays a critically important role in the training, recovery, performance, and overall wellness of professional athletes. Professional athletes are vulnerable to a variety of sleep-related problems and disorders, due to unique factors related to training, travel, and competition, among other factors. Improved, standardized research methodology and partnerships between professional athletes, coaches, teams, and organizations and researchers are necessary to advance the knowledge of sleep and performance in professional athletes, including identifying sport-specific differences and variation across individual characteristics, as well as developing individualizable, dynamic, and appropriate interventions for improving sleep health among professional athletes.