In a recently published study in Sleep, 3 Stanford researchers and a colleague from UC-San Francisco assert that the Stanford men’s basketball team—or, rather, 11 members of it—does better on the court when players get more sleep beforehand. Among the benefits of more sleep for the athletes: better shooting, faster sprints, and reduced reaction time. Dr. William Dement, the campus celebrity famous for his Sleep and Dreams course, is among the four authors.
The findings sure do make intuitive sense: sleep more, perform better.
The (marginal-at-best-and-meant-only-for-a-quick-laugh-if-that) story? Stanford players were able to allocate 10.5 hours per night to sleeping for a five to seven week period. Five to seven weeks of 10.5 hours per night? That won’t help eliminate the dumb jock stereotype. Even if they didn’t sleep as much as they claimed they did—as the San Francisco Chronicle points out—you’d be hard-pressed to find that much snoozing among Stanford undergraduates.
Plus, to keep up the sleeping and still show up on time for head coach Johnny Dawkins’s notoriously early morning workouts, members of the Card will have to start getting to bed early—very early.
NOTE: USA’s U19 National Team, with Stanford sophomore wingman Anthony Brown at guard, was eliminated from the World Championships in Latvia with a 79-74 loss to Russia earlier today. The run for the US ended in the tournament’s quarterfinal round.
Related Posts:
About the Author
