Sleep = Free Performance Boost
Why teen athletes who sleep 8–9 hours perform better, recover faster, and stay healthier.
Sleep is the most powerful, underrated performance enhancer for high-school athletes. Teen bodies and brains are still developing, which makes sleep the foundation of reaction time, memory consolidation, muscle repair, emotional control, and injury prevention.
One night of short sleep can slow reaction time as much as being legally impaired. Over a season, poor sleep compounds — slower decisions, weaker output, decreased resilience, and higher injury risk.
What great athletes do:
- Protect 8–9 hours every night
- Remove phones from the bedroom
- Use a consistent sleep/wake schedule
- Wind down with low light, stretching, or journaling
Sleep is not extra. It’s training.
Watson et al., Sleep Health in Adolescents (2021); Fullagar et al., Sleep and Athletic Performance (2015)
Sleep = Free Performance Boost\n• 8–9 hours boosts reaction time\n• Sleep builds strength and memory\n• Better sleep = better athletes
Tonight: phone out of the room + lights out earlier.
