Sleep decreases the levels of perceived stress among young athletes
The study found that a sleep device using a high sensitivity sensor appears to be a viable way for young athletes to collect useful measures of heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep duration and onset of sleep. Furthermore, sleep appears to be an underestimated recovery tool that aids in not only recovery from training but also levels of perceived stress.
“I was surprised to learn that one additional hour of sleep resulted in a 10-15% decrease in a subject’s perceived stress score. This result was observed during a 4-month pre-competition period so in the future, I would be interested to learn if the additional stress of a competition period further increases the benefits sleep may have on ٳٱ,“ Kuorelahti reflects.
This research suggests that measures of heart rate collected during sleep at night could provide athletes with helpful information, especially during training camps and competition periods. Furthermore, current technology enables these values to be collected in a way where little to no effort is required.
“We all know that technology will continue to grow, and it appears that the sports science laboratory is also growing, and measurements can now be collected in the comfort of your own bed. Of course, ’s not perfect and we need to make sure the data collected is accurate and reliable and that is how this research comes into play,” Kuorelahti says.
The dissertation also focused on the athlete progress and development that occurs during the high school years. The results of a one-year analysis showed a progressive development in sport-specific performance tests but the remaining performance-related measures showed minimal to no improvement.
“You may expect that progress in performance will naturally occur in young athletes but that is not necessarily the case. Today, young athletes train at a very high level and a lack of change does not automatically indicate that athletes are not developing. In this study, additional measures of blood and perceived stress indicated that proper nutrition and both physical and mental health were maintained, yet improvements were only visible in one sport-specific test of performance. It is important for coaches and athletes to know that performance-related improvements do not always follow a linear path,” Kuorelahti points out.
The dissertation consisted of four sub-studies involving a total of 37 young athletes that attended the Vuokatti Ruka Sports Academy. The Amer Cultural Foundation, Finland, supported this work.
The examination of Christina ܴǰپ’s doctoral dissertation " Monitoring and development of junior cross-country skiers during sports high school " will be held on Saturday, 30.09.2023, at 12 noon in the Auditorium of Sokos Hotel Vuokatti (Kidekuja 2, Vuokatti). Professor Thomas Losnegard (Norwegian School of Sport Sciences) will act as opponent and professor Vesa Linnamo (Ģֱ) as custos. The language of the defense is English.
Christina Kuorelahti graduated with a Bachelor in Exercise Science from Michigan Technological University in 2012 and as a Master of Science in Sport and Health Sciences from the Ģֱ in 2015. Kuorelahti has worked as a doctoral researcher for the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences in Vuokatti at the Ģֱ since September of 2017.
More information:
Christina Kuorelahti
christina.m.mishica@jyu.fi
+358 40 686 0843