NFL Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sills recently spoke with Dr. Cheri Mah, a renowned expert in athletic sleep medicine based at Stanford University. Dr. Mah researches the critical connections between sleep, performance, recovery and injury prevention, and has worked with NFL teams, as well as other sports and individual professional athletes.
Key takeaways from their conversation about how sleep can impact performance:
- Sleep is the foundation for learning and memory: Mah describes sleep as "the save button" for consolidating skills and information, affecting not just athletic performance but cognitive function, decision-making under pressure and the ability to retrieve learned information when it matters most.
- Sleep deprivation increases injury risk: Studies show adolescent athletes sleeping less than eight hours face 1.7 times higher injury risk compared to those getting more than eight hours, making adequate sleep essential for keeping bodies healthy and ready to perform.
- Your body can catch up on sleep, but it takes time: "Sleep extension," or getting more sleep than your body requires, can pay back accumulated sleep debt, but it often takes a week or two of extended sleep to see the biggest benefits in reaction time, physical performance and energy levels, not just one weekend.
- Time zone changes affect performance beyond international travel: Even crossing two or three time zones impacts an athlete's reaction time and decision-making, with full acclimation taking roughly one day per time zone 鈥� often more time than teams have between travel and competition.
- Small shifts in sleep habits matter: Mah recommends thinking of sleep not as the end of today, but as the beginning of tomorrow, because how you invest in sleep today shapes performance tomorrow. Simple changes like avoiding screens 30 minutes before bed and creating a wind-down routine can make a meaningful difference.
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