Sleep and Recovery
Why Sleep Matters
Sleep is one of the most powerful recovery tools available to athletes. While training challenges your body, it is during sleep that your body does most of its repairing, rebuilding, and adapting.
Quality sleep helps your body to:
Repair and build muscle
Restore energy (glycogen) stores
Support growth and development
Strengthen your immune system
Regulate important hormones
Improve learning and memory
Improve reaction time and decision-making
Enhance focus, mood, and overall performance
For hockey players, sleep is just as important as nutrition, hydration, and training. Every practice, workout, and game places stress on your body, and sleep is when many important recovery processes occur. Consistently getting enough quality sleep supports physical recovery, cognitive performance, and your ability to adapt to training demands (Halson, 2014; Walsh et al., 2021).
What Happens When You Don't Get Enough Sleep?
Getting enough sleep isn't always easy. Between school, homework, practices, games, travel, social activities, and screen time, many student-athletes struggle to maintain a consistent sleep schedule.
Even short periods of inadequate sleep can affect both physical and mental performance.
Research has shown that poor sleep may lead to:
Slower reaction time
Reduced strength, power, and endurance
Poor decision-making
Difficulty concentrating and learning new skills
Increased fatigue
Slower recovery between practices and games
Lower motivation and mood
Greater risk of illness and injury
For athletes, these changes can make it harder to react quickly, make smart decisions under pressure, recover between games, and perform consistently throughout the season. Sleep loss can negatively affect both physical abilities and the cognitive skills needed for high-performance sport, including attention, reaction time, and decision-making (Fullagar et al., 2015; Walsh et al., 2021).
Nutrition and Sleep: Working Together
Nutrition and sleep work together to support recovery, performance, and overall health. Food provides the energy and nutrients your body needs to repair muscles, replenish glycogen stores, and recover from training, while sleep is when many of these recovery processes take place.
When athletes consistently don't get enough sleep, it can interfere with carbohydrate metabolism, appetite regulation, hormone production, protein synthesis, and overall energy levels. Over time, these changes can make recovery less effective and may reduce athletic performance (Halson, 2014; Walsh et al., 2021).
Eating regular meals throughout the day, consuming enough carbohydrates and protein, and staying well hydrated helps support both recovery and healthy sleep patterns (Doherty et al., 2021).
If you're hungry before bed, a light snack that combines carbohydrates and protein can help support overnight recovery. Some examples include:
Greek yogurt with berries
Whole-grain toast with peanut butter
Cottage cheese with fruit
A fruit smoothie made with milk or yogurt
Whole-grain cereal with milk
Applesauce with walnuts
Some foods naturally contain tryptophan, an amino acid involved in producing serotonin and melatonin, which help regulate the sleep-wake cycle. Foods such as milk, yogurt, cheese, eggs, turkey, chicken, nuts, and seeds are natural sources.
It’s also important not to go to bed overly hungry. As athletes have high energy needs, and going to bed hungry may make it more difficult to fall asleep or stay asleep. If you're feeling hungry before bed, having a small, balanced snack can support both overnight recovery and getting a restful sleep.
Building Healthy Sleep Habits
Good quality sleep comes from building consistent habits over time. Most young adult athletes should aim for 8-10 hours of sleep each night, although individual needs vary and some athletes may benefit from more during periods of heavy training, tournaments, or growth (Vitale et al., 2019).
The following habits can help improve both sleep quality and recovery:
Maintain a consistent bedtime and wake-up time whenever possible.
Create a cool, dark, quiet, and comfortable sleep environment.
Limit screen time for 30-60 minutes before bed.
Avoid caffeine later in the day, especially after 2:00 pm.
Develop a relaxing bedtime routine, such as reading, stretching, listening to calming music, or taking a warm shower.
Eat regular meals and stay hydrated throughout the day.
Avoid going to bed overly hungry.
If you occasionally have an early morning practice or a poor night's sleep, a 20-30 minute nap may improve alertness, concentration, and reaction time. However, naps should not replace a consistent night's sleep (Vitale et al., 2019).
It can be more difficult for an athlete to keep a consistent sleep schedule every night due to late games, tournaments, travel, school deadlines, and early morning practices that can disrupt your routine. Prioritizing sleep whenever possible, refueling after practices and games, staying hydrated, and returning to your regular sleep schedule after busy periods will help support long-term recovery and performance (Walsh et al., 2021).
References
Doherty, R., Madigan, S. M., Nevill, A., Warrington, G., & Ellis, J. G. (2021). The sleep and recovery practices of athletes. Nutrients, 13(4), Article 1330.https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13041330
Fullagar, H. H. K., Skorski, S., Duffield, R., Hammes, D., Coutts, A. J., & Meyer, T. (2015). Sleep and athletic performance: The effects of sleep loss on exercise performance, and physiological and cognitive responses to exercise. Sports Medicine, 45, 161–186.https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0260-0
Halson, S. L. (2014). Sleep in elite athletes and nutritional interventions to enhance sleep. Sports Medicine, 44(Suppl 1), S13–S23.https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0147-0
Vitale, K. C., Owens, R., Hopkins, S. R., & Malhotra, A. (2019). Sleep hygiene for optimizing recovery in athletes: Review and recommendations. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 40(8), 535–543.https://doi.org/10.1055/a-0905-3103