Sleep is the one thing that everyone could use more of. If someone is a student, professional athlete or average nine-to-five worker, they could use more of it. Part of the issue is if college athletes get enough sleep, especially Oswego State athletes.
According to the NCAA, in partnership with Sport Science Institute, in-season student athletes get 6.27 hours of sleep on average nightly. The recommended amount of sleep for a college athlete is eight hours. Meaning that throughout a week, where a college athlete could be facing four two-hour practices, multiple training sessions and two games, they would be deprived of almost 10 hours of sleep each week. This will not bring a strong and well-trained athlete down overnight, but throughout the course of a season, this could lead to more stress and injuries. There is an indirect correlation between less sleep and poor performance for the college athlete. Oswego State head athletic trainer Kevin Joyce sees this the most during midterms and finals for the student-athletes at Oswego State.
“We see at a lot of things in here when it comes to midterm and finals time,” Joyce said. “Athletes aren’t sleeping enough and you’ll see that in the end their performance suffers. Their overall demeanor, just how they carry themselves, changes in that time too.”
This is fairly consistent around the country also. A recent survey published by Futurity.com showed that of, “189 student-athletes, researchers found that 68 percent reported poor sleep quality, with 87 percent getting less than or equal to eight hours of sleep a night and 43 percent getting less than seven hours. About 23 percent of the athletes surveyed reported experiencing excessive levels of fatigue.”
It is past the point of debating whether student-athletes are getting enough sleep, it is clear that most places in America have struggled to enforce their athletes get the recommended eight plus hours. That is where Oswego State is using NCAA guidelines and the knowledge of their many experienced trainers and coaches to make the difference for their athletes. Education is where the sleep discussion starts and ends. The more educated the Oswego State student-athletes are on this matter, the more effective they will be in implementing the correct sleep habits. This is shown to indirectly correlate to peak performance. Oswego State cross country coach Jacob Smith believes that proper sleep and nutrition is a skill for life.
“Some people are better at implementing those things than others,” Smith said. “Doing a good job with sleep and nutrition is a skill, just like anything else, so people need to practice it. They need to work on it. They need to own it, in order to get better at it. Some people have just had more practice at it over the course of their lives than others. So, it seems to be a range, it also seems to be a function of people’s personalities. Some people are more ‘Type-A’ personality and they spend more time paying attention to details.”
Smith does an excellent job of educating his runners in sleep habits and is effective due to his explanation of it as a life skill. Div. III athletics at Oswego State are ultimately a microcosm of the lives that follows them for the athletes. This four-year period is an important, but ultimately small blip of their lives. By enforcing sleep as a life skill and not just an annoying team rule, there is more understanding from the athletes.
Most importantly, the athletes are able to have good habits for when they land their dream job or have a family to care for. Sleep is a pillar for success that so many seem to neglect. If one masters it, they seemingly have an advantage. That advantage is felt during the athletic events here. The coaches feel the pressure to get into their athletes heads early and often on the matter. Smith gets more scientific in his optimal sleep breakdown.
“Most [runners] would ideally get nine [hours],” Smith said. “For me, they are probably okay if they get seven and a half. So, if you are familiar with the way sleep cycles work, they work in 45 minutes. So, if you work in 45 minute blocks and you work backwards. Nine hours, works out to be 12, 45 minute blocks and that’s the ideal.”
Oswego State athletics are highlighted by great facilities. A one of a kind hockey arena and outstanding coaches and trainers. When someone imagines Oswego State athletics, their mind goes right to the Marano Campus Center on a Friday or Saturday night for a hockey game. The fans were just decked out in their teal shirts for the annual “TEAL Gate” game this past Saturday and soon will be in all-white for the Nov. 8 clash against Plattsburgh State.
Now imagine the hockey players going through a full week of practices, classes and media obligations. This is all before having to play games on Friday and Saturday nights. Where is the time for sleep? Oswego State is making steps in the right direction with the education of sleep to their players, but they should also look at a recent example of a Div. III school taking initiative in their student-athletes getting enough sleep each night. That school is the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, who were recently featured by the NCAA.
The small Div. III school on the banks of the Mississippi river and on the outskirts of downtown Minneapolis was one of the first schools in the country to develop a sleep center. A place where their students could get an individual reading of their sleep patterns and ways to improve them in the future. They have even implemented a sleep room to every single dorm hall on their campus for the general student population.
The athletes receive a one-on-one interview with an expert in sleep at the beginning of every year and are taught through team specific sleep lectures. The coaches of the college meet with the sleep experts and have their practice schedules approved before the start of each season. Just like a good football team is built around their offensive line, a good golfer builds their game around a solid putter or a basketball team being fundamentally sound from the free throw line, a Div. III athletic program can build around a basic pillar of success. The University of St. Thomas picked sleep as its pillar, and the success has been felt throughout the program. Personified by their football team making the Div. III football playoffs on an almost annual basis.
Oswego State is dominant in several sports this year and seem geared up for two long runs into March for men’s basketball and men’s hockey. Winning is in the details at a certain point. A closer look at the sleep habits of the athletes on campus might be the difference in a few wins or loses for Oswego State athletics this year. Smith, who worked at the U.S. training center for running earlier in his coaching career, sees a similarity between olympians and Oswego State athletes at the end of the day.
“Just because the athletes don’t have the same level of talent at the Div. III level as the athletes who are at the olympic level have, they still have the same physiology,” Smith said. “Everyone is still a human being.”
Photo from Free-Photos via Pixabay
