Improve Athletes’ Sleep Quality with Brief Mindfulness
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“Which brings us to the aspect of letting go. The more you can forget what’s going to happen the next day, the easier it will be to sleep. If you’re trying to force sleep to happen, it never will. Sleep comes in waves and will happen when it wants to—you just have to set the stage for it.” – Shelby Harris
Modern society has become more around-the-clock and more complex producing considerable pressure and stress on the individual. The advent of the internet and smart phones has exacerbated the problem. The resultant stress can impair sleep. Indeed, it is estimated that over half of Americans sleep too little due to stress. As a result, people today sleep 20% less than they did 100 years ago. Not having a good night’s sleep has adverse effects upon the individual’s health, well-being, and happiness. It has been estimated that 30 to 35% of adults have brief symptoms of insomnia, 15 to 20% have a short-term insomnia disorder, and 10% have chronic insomnia
Insomnia is more than just an irritant. Sleep deprivation is associated with decreased alertness and a consequent reduction in performance of even simple tasks, decreased quality of life, increased difficulties with memory and problem solving, increased likelihood of accidental injury including automobile accidents, and increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. It also can lead to anxiety about sleep itself. This is stressful and can produce even more anxiety about being able to sleep. About 4% of Americans revert to sleeping pills. But, these do not always produce high quality sleep and can have problematic side effects. So, there is a need to find better methods to treat insomnia. Mindfulness-based practices have been reported to improve sleep amount and quality and help with insomnia.
In today’s Research News article “Effect of Brief Mindfulness Induction on University Athletes’ Sleep Quality Following Night Training.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00508/full?utm_source=F-AAE&utm_medium=EMLF&utm_campaign=MRK_613817_69_Psycho_20180424_arts_A ), Li and colleagues recruited university student athletes and randomly assigned them to listen to either a 6-minute mindfulness induction tape recording or a 6-minute non-mindfulness recording just prior to going to sleep after an evening (7-10 pm) athletic training session. Before listening to the tapes the participants completed measures of exercise intensity and arousal. After listening they were measured for mindfulness and arousal. Finally, the subsequent morning, they were measured for level of rest, sleep duration, and overall sleep quality.
They found that after listening to the tapes the mindfulness tape produced significantly higher levels of mindfulness and lower levels of arousal in the athletes, suggesting that the mindfulness induction manipulation worked as planned. Importantly, the group receiving the mindfulness instruction reported significantly greater level of rest and sleep quality than the controls. They further found that mindfulness affected rest and sleep quality in two ways; first by directly improving these measures and also by indirectly decreasing pre-sleep arousal which in turn improved sleep.
These results support the conclusion that a brief mindfulness induction prior to going to sleep decreases pre-sleep arousal and improves the subsequent sleep. This combined with previous findings that mindfulness training improves sleep amount and quality suggests that being mindful improves sleep. By focusing on the present moment, mindfulness may reduce the rumination about the past and worry about the future that can interfere with sleep. Also mindfulness training is known to reduce the physiological and psychological responses to stress, producing lower arousal and greater relaxation that can promote sleep.
So, improve athletes’ sleep quality with brief mindfulness.
“Are you one of the millions of people who find that worrying about work, family, health or relationships keeps you awake at night? . . practicing simple mindfulness exercises can help you calm your mind and sleep better.” – Ethan Green
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Li C, Kee YH and Lam LS (2018) Effect of Brief Mindfulness Induction on University Athletes’ Sleep Quality Following Night Training. Front. Psychol. 9:508. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00508
Given the need to alleviate sleep problems confronting athletes, the present experiment, conducted as much as possible in a naturalistic fashion that mimics daily life, seeks to examine whether a brief mindfulness induction immediately prior to sleep following night training can improve athletes’ sleep. A sample of university athletes (n = 80) was recruited and 63 of them were eligible to participate in this experiment. They were then randomly assigned into experimental group (n = 32) and control group (n = 31). Following night training and just prior to sleep, those in the experimental group received a self-administered brief 6-min mindfulness induction via a video clip, whereas the control group participants viewed a similar 6-min video devoid of mindfulness induction passively. Questionnaire-based measures of training intensity, pre-sleep arousal, state mindfulness, and sleep diary (i.e., level of rest, sleep duration, and overall sleep quality) were administered. Results showed that brief mindfulness induction reduced pre-sleep arousal, and improved level of rest and overall sleep quality, but not sleep duration. Pre-sleep arousal was also found to be a partial mediator in the relationship between the brief mindfulness induction and reported level of rest during sleep. These findings suggest that the brief mindfulness induction may be an effective approach for decreasing pre-sleep arousal and improving sleep quality after night training among athletes.