Lack of Sleep and its Effect on Basketball Performance
LACK OF
SLEEP/FATIGUE AND
ITS EFFECT ON
BASKETBALL
PERFORMANCE
Bryan Solvie
Motivation
Basketball and sleep both connect to myself on a personal level.
I have experienced this:
Basketball season
Enough sleep meant a decent or good performance.
Not enough sleep meant a worse performance.
Why do humans sleep?
No direct reason.
Recharge our bodies from the stresses of the day.
Repair broken neurons in the body.
When people get enough sleep, they are bright and energetic in the morning.
When they do not, they are dull and negative.
The right amount of sleep per night is around 8 to 9 hours.
Studies have shown people can survive longer without food than without sleep.
Sleep Deprivation and Fatigue
Sleep Deprivation is when a person gets a lack of sleep.
Fatigue is being extremely tired.
Fatigue = Sleep Deprivation
How does lack of sleep affect basketball performance?
Eyesight – first organ to be affects by fatigue.
Vision can be come blurred and it becomes hard to judge the distance to the basket.
Mental Alertness
Basketball players must be fast to react
Lack of sleep means slow reaction speed and hesitated decisions.
Muscular Alertness/Power
This mainly relates to shooting – a basketball needs to be shot with a curve and with power. When your muscles are tired this becomes more and more difficult and affects shooting accuracy.
Getting sleep refreshes both the mind and body, making your basketball game top notch.
“ You’re talking about players functioning on five or six hours of sleep a day, and that’s just not good enough”. – NBA coach Doc
Rivers.
Statistics #1
This graph was done for a test that evaluated the effect of fatigue on basketball passing. Players were given scores based on whether they could hit certain targets.
As we can see, the scores vary depending on fatigue and amount of rest.
Statistics #2
The following chart shows the average of 2point field goals that were missed by a number of teams in a league for people under 20. These games were played consecutively, which led to fatigue for the players. We can see that this effected the shooting as they missed more shots in their last two games, where they would be a little more tired than the first.
Furthermore, as most games are played during night, they would have a lack of sleep which led to their fatigue in games 2 and
3, while not experiencing this in game 1.
41,4
41,2
41
40,8
40,6
40,4
40,2
40
39,8
39,6
2-point Field Goals Missed in Three Consecutive Games of a
Number of Teams in an Under-20 League
1 2
Games
3
Graphic Manipulation #1
Here, I have photo shopped
Dirk Nowitzki’s body, a wonderful basketball player, on to my face. I have then added the text, ‘Thanks to all that sleep, I am one great
NBA player. I’m not even tired.’ The purpose of this was to show that sleep is an important aspect to being a good player and having an effect. I can assure you that
Nowitzki is very cautious of getting enough rest, and that it affects his performance.
Graphic Manipulation #2
In this graphic, I considered the idea that sleep can effect your performance and can make you play well like
Michael Jordan, or look like a clown like
Will Farrell. I think the question emphasizes the importance of sleep.
Conclusion
Sleep is essential to human life.
A lack of sleep can lead to poor physical/basketball performance as it slows down vital organs that are needed for the sport.
Statistics have proven sleep indeed affects basketball.
In the future, I hope to use this knowledge to make sure my performance is at top level.
References
Griffin, S. (n.d.). How Does Fatigue Affect Accuracy For Basketball? | LIVESTRONG.COM.LIVESTRONG.COM – Lose Weight &
Get Fit with Diet, Nutrition & Fitness Tools. Retrieved May 16, 2011, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/401810-howdoes-fatigue-affect-accuracy-for-basketball/ Annotation: The website is reliable as it is part of the LiveStrong Foundation, sponsored by Lance Armstrong.
Laird, D. A. (2011). Sleep. The New Book of Popular Science. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from Grolier Online http://nbps.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assettype=t&assetid=40282 00 Annotation: This is reliable as it was taken off the CA databases
. Dobson, R. (2007, November 24). Is it bye-bye to shut-eye? – News. Times, The (London, England) Body & Soul 4. Retrieved
May 17, 2011, from NewsBank on-line database (Access World News) Annotation: Taken off CA database and is also a news article.
BECK, H. (n.d.). Bowing to Body Clocks, Some N.B.A. Teams Are Sleeping In – NYTimes.com. The New York Times – Breaking
News, World News & Multimedia. Retrieved May 17, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/20/sports/basketball/20sleep.html?_r=2 Annotation: This is reliable as it is part of the
New York Times, a large trustworthy newspaper.
Effects of consecutive basketball games on the game-related statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved May 31, 2011, from http://www.jssm.org/vol8/n3/20/ v8n3-20text.php#6 This is reliable as it was part of a university research section.
The impact of moderate and high intensity total body fatigue on passing accuracy in expert and novice basketball players.
(n.d.). Retrieved May 31, 2011, from https://docs.google.com/a/canacad.ac.jp/ viewer?a=v&q=cache:K_IMFWrJ2lcJ:citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/ download
?doi%3D10.1.1.117.6240%26rep%3Drep1%26type%3Dpdf+The+impact+of+moderate+a nd+high+intensity+total+bo dy+fatigue+on+passing+accuracy+in+expert+and+novice+bas ketball+players&hl=en&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj7SInX1QMI toaFTErjiy5tVuHUBa_70V3-
NhNzpH crTZ35F3xBcet_q9QZ32GxeFf7vPX8GzQBf1t3bDjSAW4Fsvdc6oN8w8NbD3gK__vRZjcQalafJi1nh7V VojyKV v7sq3nE&sig=AHIEtbT6gZYMU4fiy9gwN0HxcI9v1FphHw A official research document.
Michael Jordan [Photograph]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.the22ndsasclan.net/michael-jordan-wallpapers-1-0/
Dirk Nowitzki [Photograph]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ File:DirkNowitzki.jpg
Jamie Duncan [Photograph]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://jamieduncan.blogspot.com/2009/05/basketball-just-isnt-mything.html
