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Session Schedule

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0:00:00
Introduction

0:02:00
Sleep, nutrition & athlete recovery
Rónán Doherty (Ireland)

0:22:42
Travel fatigue, jet lag, and performance: Insights from athletes with applicability for all
Tim Smithies (Australia)

0:42:15
Sleep deprivation, motivation, and effort investment
Stijn Massar (Singapore)

0:03:25
Mental health and sleep in athletes: Translation and application to industrial settings and shiftwork
Michael Grandner (United States)

1:25:35
Question and answer

Summary

This symposium aims to bring knowledge, learnings and application of athlete sleep practises to occupational settings. The similarities between these two areas are often compared in these settings, and the learnings are shared. This symposium delves into several key areas that cross these domains, with speakers from Australia, Ireland, Singapore and the United States. This expert panel will present a range of interesting topics in the field of sleep at how it relates to athletes and occupational settings.

The first talk will provide an overview of the literature on mental health in athletes, including data on prevalence and correlates, risk factors, and outcomes in various athletic populations. The discussion will then move to national and international efforts and best practices for managing these issues. Finally, the presentation will discuss strategies for generalizing these findings to other occupational and shiftwork groups.

Secondly, optimal nutrition, hydration and sleep are the most effective strategies for recovery in elite athletes. The adaptive response to training is dictated by several variables: duration, intensity, frequency and type of exercise in combination with timing, quality and quantity of nutrition both pre- and post-exercise. The presentation will outline elite athletes’ sleep needs and then focus on the relationship between sleep, nutrition and athlete recovery, including practical applications to shift workers and busy professionals.

Sleep deprivation negatively impacts the capacity to perform cognitive or physical tasks. Additionally, sleep loss can result in a lower willingness to exert effort to pursue performance goals. Such deficits in motivation may interact with the effects of capacity limitations to further stifle cognitive and physical performance. When sleep-deprived, performance is experienced as more effortful, and intrinsic motivation to perform dwindles. Effort-based decision-making provides an avenue to formalize and quantify such motivational deficits. In this presentation, we will discuss how sleep deprivation affects effort-based decision-making, how providing incentives improves performance under sleep loss, and propose a neurobiological pathway through which sleep loss/fatigue affects motivation for effort and how this applies to physical fatigue.

We finish the session by discussing travel fatigue and jet lag as important considerations in many elite sporting events or competitions. We will then discuss the current literature in this area, including efforts to systematically collate this research to provide coherent and understandable outcomes for athletes and coaches. Lastly, the talk will discuss the applicability of this research for other cohorts who may engage in frequent air travel, such as politicians, executives, and shift workers.

The symposium will conclude with an interactive panel addressing questions and discussing future directions.