Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "
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01.06.2014 |
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Sleeping longer makes athletes faster
If athletes force themselves to sleep two hours longer every day, their reaction speed increases and they get faster. Sleep researchers at Stanford University in the US discovered this when they performed experiments with basketball players.
Sleep, health & performance
So it's logical that athletes perform better if they make sure they don't miss out on sleep. But can athletes improve their performance by going a step further? By making sure they get lots of extra sleep? In 2011 Cheri Mah of Stanford University published in Sleep the results of a human study that showed this could be the case.
Study
Results
In the Psychomotor Vigilance Task the subjects look at a black screen. When a point of light appears they have to press a button as fast as possible.
Before starting to sleep longer the athletes had an average of 16.2 seconds for an 86-m sprint. Extending their sleep reduced this to 15.5 seconds.
The subjects also found that they felt better for more sleep: less angry, depressed, stressed, tired and confused, and they had more energy. In addition their aim became better and more accurate.
Conclusion
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