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Nutritional interventions to improve sleep in team-sport athletes: A narrative review
Athletes are prone to suffer from sleep disruption and poor quality of sleep due to their occupational circumstances, including muscle fatigue, constant and/or long term travel, scheduled exercise and competition times (during the early hours of the morning or evening). Nutrition is paramount for performance, workout and post-workout recovery. Ensuring a diverse diet and adequate nutritional supplementation may give athletes the best chances to improve both quality and quantity of sleep. In this narrative review, Gratwicke et al. (2021) discuss studies relevant to athletes that investigate nutrition, supplements, and beverages that may improve sleep quality and quantity. Six databases were searched for relevant literature from November 2020 up to study initiation. Due to the lack of literature investigating the subpopulation of athletes, inclusion criteria for relevant studies were increased to allow review of studies that investigated healthy adults, regardless of athletic status. The results demonstrated that foods with a high glycemic index somewhat improved sleep, and that tart cherry juice enhanced sleep quantity, while herbal supplements improved sleep quality. Interestingly, kiwifruit and protein supplements improved both sleep quality and quantity. The authors comment that nutritional interventions may present an efficient method to target sleep quality and quantity, however, more research is required to understand dosing, nutritional sources and timing of interventions with respect to training, travel, and competitions. [NPID: sleep, athletes, recovery, team-sport, macronutrients, supplements]
Year: 2021
