The association between workload, sleep, and performance in basketball players

In basketball, delivering appropriate workload stimuli while managing recovery between training sessions and competition is essential to promote favourable adaptations in players and to optimise performance. Sleep is a modifiable factor recognised as one of the most effective recovery interventions available to basketball players. While workload and sleep are conceptually important for player performance, investigations directly examining the associations between workload, sleep, and performance in basketball players are limited. To address this gap, the aims of this thesis were to: 1) review current literature to identify the associations between workload and performance in team sports; 2) review current literature examining sleep in athletes, including factors affecting sleep and subsequent performance; 3) examine player monitoring approaches used by basketball coaches, along with barriers and facilitators to player monitoring; 4) assess the impact of training and game workloads on sleep duration and sleep quality in basketball players; 5) determine the associations between acute player workloads and in-game performance; and 6) identify the cumulative effects of sleep over 1-4 nights prior to competition on in-game performance. Review of the literature revealed limited available research on the association between workload and performance in team sports including basketball. Furthermore, investigations documenting the associations between workload and sleep, and sleep and performance in athletes are lacking. The online survey demonstrated that while basketball practitioners find potential value in player monitoring, the implementation of monitoring is limited. One of the primary barriers to implementing player monitoring in basketball is a lack of understanding regarding which outcomes should be monitored, and how player monitoring data should be utilised in practice. As such, the overall findings of this thesis are extremely valuable to basketball practitioners given insight is provided regarding scenarios which may leave players susceptible to poor sleep as well as identifying which workload and sleep variables may be most useful to monitor in practice to optimise performance potential of players. The original research reported in this thesis revealed that following games where physical (PlayerLoad [PL]) and perceptual (session-rating of perceived exertion [sRPE]) demands were high, sleep duration was significantly restricted in basketball players, which may have implications for recovery following competition. Regarding workload, all investigated variables possessed non-significant relationships with in-game performance. However, overall and high-intensity external workload (PL and high-intensity inertial movement analysis [IMA] events [accelerations, decelerations, changes of direction, and jumps combined]) accumulated over the 7 days prior to competition and expressed per minute revealed small, positive associations with in-game performance in basketball players. For sleep variables, sleep efficiency captured 1 night prior to competition and subjective sleep quality accumulated over 1, 2, 3, and 4 nights prior to competition were significantly associated with in-game performance in basketball players. Furthermore, later wake times were significantly associated with favourable in-game performance in basketball players. In combination, the thesis findings support routine monitoring of player workloads and sleep across the season; however, monitoring of acute sleep variables may be more important to understand in-game performance potential than monitoring of acute workload variables in basketball players. Specifically, following competition, particularly where in-game workload demands are high, sleep duration in players appears particularly important to monitor. Suboptimal sleep duration following competition may be mitigated by adjusting training or travel schedules that enable players to increase their opportunity for sleep via later wake times. Basketball practitioners should implement objective and subjective monitoring of sleep quality leading into competition and avoid early wake times where possible to maximise sleep duration and promote favorable in-game performance.