INFLUENCE OF SLEEP AND MEAL SCHEDULES ON PERFORMANCE PEAKS IN COMPETITIVE SPRINTERS

The influence of sleep and meal schedules on performance in short dist ance running was assessed in a group of 8 national-class competition m ale sprinters, They were tested on Saturdays for five consecutive week s. On each testing day, the performance time for an 80 m sprint was re gistered on eight different occasions during days 1 and 4, on 9 occasi ons on days 2 and 5, and on 7 occasions on day 3. On control days (day s 1 and 4) performance gradually improved during the morning up to 13: 00 h, decreased at 15:00 h, and again improved thereafter, with a maxi mum peak performance at 19:00 h. On day 2, in which sleep/wake cycles and meal-times were advanced for two hours, and on day 3, in which tim etables were delayed for two hours, maximum peak performance was obser ved at 17:00 h and 21:00 h, respectively. At the time of maximum peak performance on both days a statistically significant improvement was o bserved as compared with the control day (day 2, p < 0.01; day 3, p = 0.001). On day 5, in which only the sleep/wake cycle was advanced for two hours, performance in the afternoon and evening was similar to tha t recorded on days 1 and 4. We observed that easy manipulation of slee p and meal schedules would allow competitive sprinters to synchronize peak power output with the time of the athletic event, increasing the chances for improvement in performance.