Why should athletes be thinking about their sleep?
Sleep in athletes is often much worse than the general population, due to training/competition schedules and both physical and psychological stress. Despite this, athletes should really consider sleep habits as a key part of their overall training schedule, as it can have effects on both performance, and recovery.
Your PhD was exploring sleep habits in female athletes. Why female athletes in particular?
Female athletes generally report worse sleep than male counterparts. Also the underrepresentation of female athletes in the literature means accurate strategies to improve this is lacking, and often strategies which are implemented are built off male-derived data. Therefore, I wanted to build a body of research aiming to rectify this.
What can we learn from your research findings so far?
Firstly, that objective monitoring of sleep should be done where possible, as self-reported measures are not always accurate. Secondly, that sleep hygiene education can be a useful tool to improve a variety of sleep metrics for athletes and, where possible, this should be delivered in an individualised way.
Your recent research suggests that GIFs could be a good tool for improving sleep. Can you tell us about the study?
We worked with professional footballers from the Women’s Super League (WSL) to assess self-reported target areas of sleep hygiene that needed improvement in individuals. We then designed GIFs with the purpose of giving a singular sleep hygiene message to each individual. Messages included ‘Screens away 30 minutes before bed’ and ‘Replace caffeinated drink with non-caffeinated herbal tea or water’. We sent these daily across a two-week period at a consistent time of 8pm with the intention of encouraging them to follow the prompts.
Following the GIF interventions, the professional footballers we observed saw improvements in their sleep by the end of the nine-week study. Even more impressively, these improvements happened mid-season, which is typically associated with higher stress in footballers than during pre-season.
Before coming to Kent, you spent 15 years working in the field of elite sport. How has this informed the way you approach teaching and research?
Working in the field for so has given me a good idea of what’s needed within a course, and upon leaving university, to be successful in the field. I aim to embed these key employability skills throughout all my modules and frequently use case studies and examples from professional practice to show the application of certain techniques, in different environments and situations.
And finally, what first inspired you to pursue a career in sports rehabilitation?
Sports rehabilitation was always a field I was interested in from a young age. I began my career in the world of elite tennis, supporting tennis athletes to both UK and international tournaments, and have since coached athletes to compete at three Olympic and Paralympic Games. I have also been a Board Director for the United Kingdom Strength and Conditioning Association since 2022, and continue this role alongside my work at Kent. I enjoy the pace of the environment, having to think quickly about certain approaches, and the chance to work with a wide variety of people.