Research

Mixed

Extending nocturnal sleep to 10 hours per night for 5-7 weeks significantly improves specific athletic performance metrics, including sprint speed and shooting accuracy, in collegiate basketball players.

If you are an athlete, try adding 1-2 hours of sleep to your night for at least 5 weeks. Aim for 10 hours in bed. You should see faster sprint times and better shooting accuracy. This is not about sleeping in lazily; it is about giving your body the recovery time it needs to perform at its peak.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Subjects demonstrated a faster timed sprint following sleep extension (16.2 ± 0.61 sec at baseline vs. 15.5 ± 0.54 sec at end of sleep extension, P < 0.001). Shooting accuracy improved, with free throw percentage increasing by 9% and 3-point field goal percentage increasing by 9.2% (P < 0.001).
Cheri D. Mah et al. · SLEEP · 2011

Why this rating

Small sample size (n=11) and lack of a control group limit generalizability, though the within-subject design is robust.

Source

The Effects of Sleep Extension on the Athletic Performance of Collegiate Basketball Players

Cheri D. Mah et al. · SLEEP · 2011

DOI 10.5665/sleep.1132

crossover · n=11Cited 609×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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