This week’s article will continue on where I left last week where the main subject was the effect of sleep (or lack of it) on an athlete/official’s performance. After all, it seems to be no secret that sleep seems to be a misunderstood process in the general population.

As I concluded last week, I guess many, including myself, at times tend to struggle to balance the pressures of work and/or study with a sports career and feel that 24 hours in a day are not enough to fit everything in. What happens then is that sleep will usually be the first to suffer and if this tendency is kept for some weeks, then we start to feel burnt out or even lack motivation and thus struggle to keep our form on the field of play.

There is mounting evidence that insufficient or poor quality sleep does not just compromise short-term physical performance. Unfortunately it is also associated with a host of serious health problems including weight gain, insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease.

According to the specialist website www.pponline.co.uk, as little as six days with sleep duration restricted to four hours per night has been shown to alter the hormone profiles of healthy young people so dramatically that they effectively replicate those typically found in elderly or depressed individuals.

The New England Journal of Medicine described sleep as ‘a new cardiovascular frontier’, highlighting the cardiovascular implications of normal and disturbed sleep. Recent research has also shown that sleep deprivation can reduce cardiovascular performance by 11per cent and result in other changes that indicate possible accelerated ageing.

Other studies have concluded that sleep deprivation is associated with a series of hormonal changes which can lead to increased hunger and appetite, making it more difficult to achieve the low body fat levels required for success in many sports.

In one recent study, two days of restricted sleep resulted in an increased appetite of calorie-dense high carbohydrate foods, including sweets, salty snacks and starchy food, by a staggering 33-45per cent.

The quality of sleep is as important as duration. Sleep fragmentation due to fidgeting, restless legs or difficulty getting off to sleep can all combine with reduced sleep duration to contribute to sleep deficiency.

People are generally unaware that sleep is comprised of different stages and that the stages have specific functions for physical and mental recovery.

Without going in the complexities and technicalities of the matter, one can easily state that the best and safest approach is to maintain consistent bed times and sleep duration.

There is little doubt surrounding the claims that moderate exercise and fitness training improve sleep, especially in people who suffer from sleep disorders that are caused from being overweight.

The most obvious sleep stage affected by exercise is the deep sleep stage. It is also undoubted that people who exercise feel younger. Deep sleep occurs during the first third of the nights sleep and is compromised by delayed bed times. To improve sleep quality in terms of deep sleep it is important to avoid late nights or disturbing sleep environments.

The second important sleep stage to discuss is rapid eye movement sleep (REM). This sleep stage is often reduced, possibly to the prolonged time spent in deep sleep. However, in a normal sleep pattern, REM dominates the last two thirds of our nights sleep.

However, one needs to consider that too much REM has adverse side effects. For example, excessive amounts of REM sleep have been associated with depression and de-motivation. A common mistake to make is the long ‘recovery’ sleep-in or long afternoon nap. They can leave us waking de motivated and depressed, making it easier to postpone our planned training session.

Nutrition also plays a part in the matter. Poor sleep and suboptimal nutrition can both result in reduced exercise performance and in many cases it is difficult to find the initial cause of an accelerating downward spiral. This is especially important because many studies have suggested that suboptimal nutrition status in important ‘sleep’ minerals is far from uncommon.

In athletes, these problems can be compounded because the energy demands often place additional strain on these important nutrients. An over-reliance on cow’s milk and milk products may also result in mineral and amino acid concentrations that are not conducive to good sleep.

Contrary to popular belief, milk is not an ideal bedtime drink. Experts are stating that not only does it have a relatively low tryptophan content (because cow’s milk contains protein fractions not found in human milk), it also contains large amounts of calcium, which can reduce zinc and magnesium uptake (these arimportant minerals for sleep and growth/recovery).

Upon concluding, it is worthy to highlight the fact that sleep deprivation is a growing problem, and one that can significantly impair performance in athletes/officials. It is also an area that is easily overlooked in the rush to fit training schedules around work and family commitments.

If one suspects that he/she is not getting all the sleep that is needed, addressing this sleep shortage may pay far more dividends than an extra training session here and there. In next week's article I will conclude the series on this subject by highlighting some important factors that will help to create an optimal sleeping environment.