A current examine led by the College of Kent’s Faculty of Pure Sciences has discovered that brief animations referred to as GIFs (Graphic Interchange Format) can enhance the sleep {of professional} feminine footballers.
Poor sleep high quality is frequent amongst elite athletes, with sleep atmosphere and bedtime routine usually in charge. {Many professional} athletes look to sleep coaches to assist enhance their sleep, which may have a big effect on their performances and wellbeing, however this new analysis demonstrates that easier sleep enhancement methods may truly be adopted.
Dr Julie Gooderick and her crew of researchers labored with skilled footballers from the Ladies’s Tremendous League (WSL), the very best degree of ladies’s soccer in England, to evaluate self-reported goal areas of sleep hygiene that wanted enchancment in people. Sleep hygiene will be outlined as practising habits that facilitate sleep. GIFs had been then designed with the aim of giving a singular sleep hygiene message to every particular person. The message was accompanied by a purposely brief textual content to facilitate a excessive engagement fee. Messages included ‘Screens away half-hour earlier than mattress’ and ‘Exchange caffeinated drink with non-caffeinated natural tea or water’.
All contributors obtained their bespoke messages each day throughout a two-week intervention interval at a constant time of 8pm, with the intention of them actioning the sleep hygiene immediate.
Following the GIF interventions the skilled footballers reported enhancements to their sleep by the top of the nine-week examine. Much more impressively, these enhancements occurred mid-season, which is usually related to increased stress in footballers than throughout pre-season.
Dr Gooderick mentioned: ‘Working with skilled feminine athletes for this examine not solely allowed us to assist enhance their sleep high quality, but it surely additionally helped us to determine a brand new time- and resource-efficient technique of sleep enhancement.
‘Preliminary proof highlights a promising technique utilizing GIF messaging as an individualised sleep hygiene schooling intervention. This technique might present the chance for sport coaches and athletes to entry specialist recommendation in sleep with out the potential constraint of sources or location for each themselves and sleep specialists.’