Topics: Mindfulness, Recovery.
Impacted domains: All athletes and performers.
Researchers: Tim Birnkraut, Michael Kellmann, and Sarah Jakowski.
“We have a big match/game tomorrow. Make sure you rest up.”
You give the speech to your team. You hope that they listen. You give them a curfew and hope that they stick to it. If you’re a collegiate coach, you have more say; but if you’re a professional coach, you’re dealing with grown human beings… there’s only so much you can do.
The next morning you see most of them bleary-eyed, out of it, disheveled, looking like they slept no more than 5 hours each.
“How did you sleep?”
You get a mumble of “Good,” “Not bad,” and “All right.”
After you watch them warm up though, you know they’re lying.
Why do athletes have poor sleep before big events?
There are some obvious reasons why athletes might sleep poorly before major competitions. Adrenaline. Anticipation. Excitement. Even nerves.
But sport and performance psychology researchers also focus on cognitive and emotional arousal. In other words, athletes will often carry stress, uncertainty, and rumination into bed with them.
Thoughts and behaviors that are common:
Replaying mistakes.
Thinking about how their performances impact selection decisions and playing times.
Doomscrolling social media.
Focusing on opponents.
Thinking about their expectations.
Their bodies might be physically tired… but their minds do not turn off.
And this is where mindfulness enters the picture. Because consistently practiced and engaged with, mindfulness may help athletes regulate this very stress, attention, and thoughts throughout the day—before sleep even starts.
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What did researchers do and find?
They wanted to understand whether day-to-day shifts in mindfulness influenced how elite athletes slept and recovered. To investigate this, they tracked 33 elite-level judoka over a 2-week period using both objective and subjective measurements (tracking devices and daily questionnaires).
Note that the sample comprised of athletes from Olympic-level squads and feeder squads. These were not recreational-level athletes—but international level and extremely skilled.
To simplify, the big areas they looked at were:
Sleep duration
Sleep quality
And its interactions with “mindfulness”
Here’s a summary of their main findings: athletes tended to recover and sleep better on days where they were more “mindful”—specifically, when they scored higher in a mindfulness area called “acting with awareness.” Expressed differently, this finding means they were better rested and recovered when they were mentally present and connected to the present moment as oppose to lost in their thoughts.
This matters because many athletes don’t struggle with sleep simply because “they don’t care enough” about their performance the next day. Rather, they are often caught up in ruminative cycles and worry—which is what causes their sleep quantity and quality to suffer.
Another interesting tidbit: sleep quality and sleep quantity are not one and the same. In fact, athletes can objectively sleep a “normal” amount while still feeling psychologically unrested. For example, an athlete can spend enough hours in bed… but they can technically “feel” not rested because the quality of that sleep was not great.
Limitations
Before we get to how you can apply this information to better help your athletes… it’s important to consider limitations with this research.
Observational study. Researchers found associations between mindfulness, recovery, and sleep. But they cannot definitely say that mindfulness “caused” these improvements.
Sample size of only 33. Though it is common in sport and performance psychology research in elite populations to have such a small sample, keep in mind that these results may not generalize.
Elite-level judoka athletes: while many of these findings may transfer to other high-level performers and domains, combat sport athletes may be unique in different ways.
How you can use this information to help your athletes rest and recover better
The biggest takeaway from this paper is that program directors and coaches should consider that there is a large psychological component to rest and recovery.
The focus is often on spending money and resources on:
Recovery gadgets
Ice baths
Sleep gadgets
Curfew enforcement
These matter… but athletes also carry psychological stress into bed with them.
Many athletes finish training and immediately jump into film review, social media scrolling, texting, focusing on playing time worries, career concerns, academics, or life stressors. They never really “switch off.”
However, the researchers highlight that one of the possible benefits of mindfulness is the ability of athletes to down regulate and relax before bed time—which allowed them to easier slip into sleep (and possibly spend less time ruminating or caught up in their thoughts). See below.
Put another way, if after practice and competition athletes are unable to turn off their brains, and instead are spending time worrying, anxious, and are unable to “calm themselves,” this can result in challenges falling asleep (and therefore impacts the quality of their recovery).
So with all of this being said…
Here’s what you can do:
Educate your athletes that sleep and recovery are as much psychological as they are physical: When it’s time to “wind down,” are they still caught up in their thoughts? Are they spending time worrying about their performances? Life stressors? Their place on the team? Broach this conversation whenever you feel it is appropriate.
Create moments of decompression and present-moment connection: This does not have to be formal mindfulness training. Consider a “no-phones” cool-down, stretching exercises where they focus on bodily sensations, and team breathing exercises. It truly is about regulating stress and anxiety throughout the day so that athletes can sleep and recover to the best of their ability.
Work with sport and performance psychology professionals to encourage mindfulness: In the United States, look from practitioners with masters/PhDs who also hold a CMPC® (or are in the process of getting one). This will ensure that they have a specialization in sport and performance psychology and also and working with sporting populations. In the UK, that means searching for HCPC consultants/or psychologists. Search for practitioners who have expertise in mindfulness-acceptance concepts.
Your final takeaway
Athletes struggle to sleep well (and therefore recover) due to stress, rumination, and attentional disruptions. As opposed to taking a unidimensional, physical approach to sleep management and recovery, consider incorporating ideas and skills related to mindfulness and helping athletes manage their stress and arousal.
There’s a growing body of research that the psychological component of recovery is important, too.
That’s all for today.
Reference
Birnkraut, T., Kellmann, M., & Jakowski, S. (2025). Effect of daily mindfulness fluctuations on sleep and recovery-stress states in elite level judoka: An observational study. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 7, 1583058. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2025.1583058
