Imagine the scene for a moment.
A team has a penalty.
You have to search for a launcher, but the choice is not only predetermined by traditional factors such as the hierarchy, quality or effectiveness of the aforementioned, but by the time.
In case there is or is not sunlight at the time of shooting.
And because of the
influence of sleep on the neurocognitive performance
of that footballer who plants the ball at the eleven-meter point and decides if he should drive a whip or indulge in a fancy
to what
Panenka
.
He has his explanation. "A professional player with experience in
First division
the one we have dealt with did not want to shoot penalties at night.
But if it was at noon or early in the afternoon, he always did.
And it marked practically all of them.
It's not by chance.
You are more effective if you shoot at a time when your biological rhythm is at its peak
.
And hers was that of a very daytime person. "The doctor is speaking.
Eduard Estivill
, who has spent the last 50 years of his life [is 72] studying sleep and its impact on our lives. Athletes are increasingly exposed to a society and an industry that demand the
product perfection
, so the clubs are looking for answers where before few repaired.
"There is a demand from society that athletes play at greater intensity and density. They want to see
Messi or Mirotic
two or three times a week.
They want them to be faster, and also to play more games.
There is scientific evidence:
today the players run more and the ball goes faster
.
They are all more athletes.
But from a sports medicine point of view it is a risk factor.
Both to get injured more and to perform less.
AND
people talk little about sleep
".
Gil Rodas
is the medical director of
Barça Innovation Hub
, a research platform of the Barça club that brings together several studies aimed at optimizing performance.
Between sleep and injuries
Barcelona is carrying out one of its most stimulating investigations with
644 young people from La Masia
.
In collaboration with UEFA and with the AdSalutem sleep medicine institute, the Barça club has set out to check how many parameters conform to what has already been published in multiple studies: that athletes tend to sleep less and worse than those who are not;
that sleep loss is directly associated with loss of speed and endurance, but also with increased heart rate, oxygen consumption and fatigue;
that poor sleep affects neurocognitive performance, reducing concentration, the ability to solve problems and also precision;
or what
sleep disorders can increase the risk of injury
and delay physical recovery, but also cause metabolic alterations or make it difficult to maintain weight. "We wanted to know what happens in our house, because sometimes researchers make up the results a bit.
We will see how those children sleep
, and if sleep really affects your academic and athletic performance.
Also if it influences the injuries, which is the most controversial aspect and which for me are multifactorial ", says Dr. Rodas. For this, the athletes of La Masia have had to sleep with a
electronic t-shirt
(Hexoskin Smart) that monitors sleep.
"There are some more sophisticated actigraphs, but it would imply hospital admissions. With these t-shirts we can already know the exact time someone is asleep through the heart and respiratory rate", explains Gil Rodas.
Those records will then be crossed with those that provide the
GPS vests
(Wimu Pro) that convert all physical activity into data: "They are accelerometers that allow you to know everything that happens during training and competition. In fact, at Barcelona we analyze daily the 250 wearables of athletes since they walk through the door "At the entrance of the club. We measure them as much as we can. Even biomarkers in the urine tests to have clues about their state of fatigue."
What time do athletes perform best?
Doctor Estivill, from his own sleep clinic, does not use electronic shirts like Barcelona does, but rather a
Smart watch
that athletes wear throughout the week, except during the hours they compete.
The most important thing is to know the circadian rhythm, a biological clock with which we are already born: "The natural tendency of a person can be intermediate, to go to sleep at 11 at night, get up at seven in the morning and is well all day; the night or evening are the ones who have trouble going to sleep, they go to bed after 12 at night and would like to get up two hours later than they do; and then there are the morning, that at six or seven in the morning they are like a rose, but that at nine at night you cannot tell them anything, because they no longer work. "Estivill, who treats multiple athletes (basketball players, sailors, players hockey players or soccer players), choose the concrete example of
Àlex Granell
, midfielder who played six years in the
Girona
before signing last October for Bolívar.
"We discovered that he was very morning. He got up like a motorcycle, and we could measure that his maximum sporting performance was around noon, and until four or five in the afternoon. On the other hand, when he played from seven to eight In the afternoon, it declined. He himself told you that it performed much worse, and he did not know why. "The therapy Dr. Estivill chooses for these cases is based on
glasses that simulate sunlight
(GoAyo).
"If we put a person in the morning with a lot of light after seven in the afternoon, we will cause them to re-energize. For Granell, when he had to play at nine at night, we recommended a long nap for an hour and average, which is a complete sleep cycle, and from seven o'clock he would put his glasses on. They have the same effect as if you go to Barceloneta beach and spend four hours in the sun. It's not witchcraft, it's science. The light stops the manufacture of melatonin, manufactured by the brain when it begins to get dark. With a shot of light we stop this process and you return to the sensation of alertness of the morning. "
"Athletes should sleep between nine and ten hours"
Not forgetting the importance of the quality and quantity of your night's sleep.
"In adults, the minimum that would be necessary to sleep is between seven and a half hours and eight.
But athletes have to do it more, between nine and ten
.
The swimmer Mireia Belmonte sleeps 11 hours.
And Cristiano Ronaldo has had a sleep advisor who also made him sleep between
10 and 11 hours
", says doctor Estivill, who warns about the difficulties in resting in the players:" The exercise they do is so strong that it causes small muscle fibers to break.
Without being injuries, they cause jerks in the legs and micro-awakenings.
That idea that exhaustion helps you sleep is completely wrong.
The more tired you are, the worse you sleep
". Regarding the use of mobile devices and tablets, Estivill establishes clear guidelines for its athletes:"
Two hours before going to bed they should stop using screens, mobiles or tablets
.
They can watch TV if they are 3-4 meters away in dim light.
But if they use any kind of blue light, what they do is disrupt the melatonin function.
It does not matter if they look at Instagram or Tik Tok. "In Barcelona, meanwhile, their medical managers advise athletes not to use screens even on the return trips from both training sessions and matches." When I sent my tennis players all over the world - Dr. Rodas intervenes - I always told them to tell me if they didn't sleep well.
Because the quality of the gesture could be detrimental, but also the ability to make decisions. "Hence, Estivill adds that the study of the biological clock already reaches the security and health bodies, whose managers have to choose the appropriate personnel for the night guards , or managers of large companies. "
I want my players to be the best, but preserving health
.
In fact, the life expectancy of athletes is higher.
They live longer, although they may have to wear a prosthesis before the rest of the people, "says Gil Rodas.
But does sleeping poorly shorten life?
Estivill does not beat around the bush: "A person can die before sleep than from hunger. Sleep is the most important activity we carry out throughout life."
Meditation and no screens before bed
The Barça Innovation Hub, the Barça club's sports laboratory that manages the data of more than 2,000 athletes, has sent a series of recommendations to its boys in order to improve their performance.
Using a guide, the players should follow some routines, among which they stand out from having a good rest to meditation. On the way to training sessions, La Masia athletes can advance their schoolwork, watch series or movies on their devices or listen to music.
The club also recommends that they eat something or take a nap "always less than 30 minutes." Once the session is over, on the trip home, Barcelona asks that electronic screens are no longer used and that athletes take advantage of it for dinner and thus not delay going to sleep.
Back at home, the club asks players to avoid drinking a lot of fluids so as not to interrupt sleep with a visit to the bathroom.
In addition, it recommends relaxation exercises. For the day before matches, the club requests that sleep habits not be changed, not even to go to bed earlier due to the risk of it being difficult to fall asleep.
To return after a game, players must have dinner at least two hours before going to bed and also must not use digital screens.
"We try to make young people see that there is a time when they have to disconnect the phone and tablets. Not by imposition. They have to understand that if they are until 2 in the morning with a mobile phone, this will not allow them to enter the sleep phase. That is education, "says Dr. Gil Rodas, head of the entire project.
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