Impaired athletic performance is one of the most notable side effects of lack of sleep. Studies have shown that sleep loss impairs the frontal lobe of the brain and has negative effects on decision making such as sensitivity to risk taking, moral reasoning, and inhibitions. Sleep deprivation can also disrupt the connection between the amygdala and the pre-frontal cortex that causes people to react more emotionally to negative stimuli due to the amygdala overreacting. For student-athletes, this can manifest as sudden emotional outbursts at teammates, coaches, officials, or opponents that may disrupt the flow of a game. These outbursts can further negatively impact the dynamics on a team.

In addition to the behavioral effects of lack of sleep, sleep deprivation can worsen concentration and destroy productivity. Lack of sleep is known to reduce reaction times significantly while also lessening motivation, focus, memory, and learning.

Furthermore, studies have shown even a surprisingly low level of fatigue can impair reaction times as much, if not more, than being legally drunk.

Sleep and mental health are heavily intertwined. For many student-athletes, discussing mental health openly with coaches, teammates, or administrators can become a daunting task. Student-athletes may fear the stigma surrounding mental health, the work that may be required once a solution is determined, or the loss of playing time. As quality and quantity of sleep is directly correlated with the diagnosis of mental health issues, discussing sleep history and sleep patterns can act as a gateway to talking about student-athlete mental health.

Not getting enough sleep or poor-sleep quality can increase risk for mental health issues. While insomnia can be a symptom of psychiatric disorders, like anxiety and depression, it is now recognized that sleep problems can also contribute to the onset and worsening of different mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and even suicidal ideation.

Those with mental health issues are even more likely to experience chronic sleep problems and, in turn, these sleep problems are likely to exacerbate psychiatric symptoms and even increase risk for suicide.

sleep and emotional regulation

Sleep deprivation negatively impacts emotions and social interactions. Studies show that inadequate sleep produces more negative emotions. These negative emotions can manifest in student-athletes in a variety of ways:

• Catastrophizing - irrational thought that things are much worse than they are.
• Comic Book Brain - your half-awake brain takes a grain of reality and creates a "comic book" that is not based in reality, but can be very emotional
• Worry - tired but wired
• Emotional Reasoning - seeing things as we think they are, not how they actually are
• Negative emotions are amplified at night and spill over into the day, making people question what is real and what is not real.

How Good Sleep Benefits Your Mental Health

While sleep deprivation and poor sleep habits wreak havoc on our mental health, getting adequate amounts of deep, restorative shut eye can make our bodies and minds feel better. Getting better sleep at night leads to:

• Higher levels of creativity
• An ability to identify and regulate emotions
• Increased mental health quality
• Better judgment and decision making

Our bodies are a complex collection of systems, rhythms, and hormones. Sleep is a critical process for keeping these systems in balance and when we’re not getting enough sleep, things start to fall out of balance. This includes surges of the stress hormone cortisol, which can impact mood and leave us prone to greater mental health challenges. Studies have shown that good sleep is an essential tool for managing mental health.

In recent years, conference realignment has impacted NCAA Division I. With these changes comes increased travel for student-athletes, which, compounded by competing priorities, will undoubtedly negatively impact their mental health, academic and sports performance.

The Sun Belt Conference recognizes the imperative role sleep plays in the student-athlete mental health equation. With 14 member institutions in 10 contiguous states, the Sun Belt is committed to its identity as a regional conference with a divisional model. This places the Sun Belt Conference in a unique position that prioritizes student-athlete wellbeing. The Sun Belt has already taken measures to ease travel distress for student-athletes by adjusting schedules to accommodate for cross-divisional road trips.

In addition to optimizing scheduling, implementing sleep strategies is crucial to ensuring athletes get enough rest to perform at their best. With proper education, training, and support, athletes can minimize the negative effects of travel and achieve their full potential both in and out of competition. Sun Belt Sleep to Rise aims to do just that.

Working alongside an esteemed team of sleep specialists, Dr. Shane Creado and Brendan Duffy, the Sun Belt Conference has awarded grants to each member institution for sleep consultation services.

The scope of their work will include:

• Sleep guidelines for the Sun Belt Conference.
• Sleep workshops for teams.
• Teaching other treatment staff that work with a team.
• Individual athlete consultations: Sleep normalization (treatment of disorders) and sleep optimization (KPIs).
• Team consultations: In-season, pre-season, off-season (concierge/ troubleshooting).
• Travel/ jet lag/ performance optimization strategies (proprietary IP).
• KPIs: New paradigms/data for sleep protocols in that particular sport.
• Team can publish data in academic journals (ex: sleep protocols and testosterone, sleep protocols and reactions times, sleep protocols and injury rates, sleep protocols and depression/ anxiety scales, etc.)
• Data scientists crunch numbers and look at performance improvements individually and as a team.

Future Champion At Rest

Student-athletes and coaches will also receive Sun Belt Sleep to Rise eye masks and "Future Champion at Rest" door hangers at all 2023-24 Sun Belt Conference Championships.

1. Avoid sleep deprivation prior to departure. If you start with sleep debt, it could make you more prone to jet lag.
2. Prioritize sleep when you’re booking flight times: a) Time your travel to avoid waking up too early. b) If you usually struggle to sleep on a flight, avoid flying overnight. c) If possible, arrive at your destination in time for a full night's sleep.
3. If you can influence the scheduling of your activity at the destination, choose a time when you’d be awake at your point of departure, so that your internal body clock will be more alert. If you’ve flown west, you will be more alert in the morning, and if you’ve flown east, you will be more alert in the afternoon.
4. Have athletes bank their sleep through naps/sleep extension for a few days before travel so that they are primed to adjust to the new time zone quickly.
5. Change practice times to match the times of competition at the destination.

1. Pack your sleep performance kit: It may include your sleep diaries, an eye mask, your favorite pillow, a hypoallergenic comforter or weighted blanket, supplements, light box, earplugs, moisturizer, lip balm, socks, spare clothes, chewy sweets for equalizing ear pressure, noise cancelling headphones, etc.
2. Wear comfortable clothing and shoes you can easily remove.
3. Take your favorite pair of PJs or a pillow – familiar objects will make your new hotel room feel more comfortable.
4. You’ll be able to relax more if you’re not anxious about timing – leave plenty of time for navigating airport security.
5. Drink plenty of water or juice (rather than tea or coffee) to avoid dehydration.
6. To help adjust the body clock, change your watch and phone to the time at your new destination when you board. Plan to eat and sleep according to your new schedule, not the one imposed by the in-flight service.
7. Have a plan for how you’ll be getting from the arrival airport to your final destination.
8. Try to sleep on the flight (sleep banking), you will have accumulated sleep, so you will have less sleep thirst when you arrive at your destination, and more bandwidth to shift your rhythm and adjust to the new time zone quicker.
9. Avoid caffeine in flight.
10. A high-carbohydrate, low-protein meal in the evening may enhance serotonin production to promote drowsiness and sleep.
11. A high-protein, low carbohydrate meal in the morning may increase the uptake of tyrosine and its conversion to adrenaline, which elevates arousal and promotes alertness.
12. Considering that skeletal muscle and connective tissues become shortened during flights and may stiffen, it is recommended that players avoid sitting the entire trip, and instead, walk around the cabin every hour.

1. Follow the sleep-wake and meal times of your local destination as much as possible.
2. Avoid naps, and fight sleepiness through the alertness promoting strategies discussed previously. (Caffeine can be used to counteract daytime sleepiness but should ideally be avoided within eight hours of bedtime.)
3. Use blue light exposure in the morning and red light exposure in the evening in order to resynchronize the circadian rhythm.
4. If you have a regular wind down routine at home, maintain it while you’re away.
5. If you are in bed and struggling to get to sleep: Consider the sleep-promoting strategies, supplements, and low-dose melatonin of 0.5-5mg at bedtime. For insomnia, consider short-term use of a sedative prescribed by your doctor.
6. Avoid light exposure at night (dim lights, dark glasses).
7. If you’ve arrived during the day and are sleepy: caffeine, light therapy, exercise, and things to keep your mind busy can help. If you must, you can take a brief nap (up to 30 minutes). This may be enough to reduce sleepiness, but brief enough not to disrupt your nighttime sleep drive.

For additional travel strategies, please reference:

Peak Sleep Performance For Athletes: The Cutting Edge Sleep Science That Will Guarantee A Competitive Advantage

The Healthy Minds Study