Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
J Biol Rhythms. 2024 Feb;39(1):5-19. doi: 10.1177/07487304231207330. Epub 2023 Nov 18.
Collegiate athletes must satisfy the academic obligations common to all undergraduates, but they have the additional structural and social stressors of extensive practice time, competition schedules, and frequent travel away from their home campus. Clearly such stressors can have negative impacts on both their academic and athletic performances as well as on their health. These concerns are made more acute by recent proposals and decisions to reorganize major collegiate athletic conferences. These rearrangements will require more multi-day travel that interferes with the academic work and personal schedules of athletes. Of particular concern is additional east-west travel that results in circadian rhythm disruptions commonly called jet lag that contribute to the loss of amount as well as quality of sleep. Circadian misalignment and sleep deprivation and/or sleep disturbances have profound effects on physical and mental health and performance. We, as concerned scientists and physicians with relevant expertise, developed this white paper to raise awareness of these challenges to the wellbeing of our student-athletes and their co-travelers. We also offer practical steps to mitigate the negative consequences of collegiate travel schedules. We discuss the importance of bedtime protocols, the availability of early afternoon naps, and adherence to scheduled lighting exposure protocols before, during, and after travel, with support from wearables and apps. We call upon departments of athletics to engage with sleep and circadian experts to advise and help design tailored implementation of these mitigating practices that could contribute to the current and long-term health and wellbeing of their students and their staff members.
大学生运动员必须满足所有本科生共有的学术义务，但他们还面临着广泛的练习时间、比赛日程和频繁离家校园的旅行等额外的结构和社会压力。显然，这些压力会对他们的学习和运动表现以及健康产生负面影响。最近提出并决定重组主要大学体育会议的提议使这些问题更加尖锐。这些重新安排将需要更多的多天旅行，这会干扰运动员的学业和个人日程。特别令人关注的是额外的东西向旅行，这会导致昼夜节律紊乱，通常称为时差反应，导致睡眠量和质量的损失。昼夜节律失调、睡眠不足和/或睡眠障碍对身心健康和表现有深远影响。我们作为有相关专业知识的关注科学家和医生，撰写了这份白皮书，以提高人们对这些挑战的认识，这些挑战影响着我们学生运动员及其同行者的健康。我们还提供了减轻大学旅行日程负面影响的实用步骤。我们讨论了睡前方案、午后小睡的可行性以及在旅行前、旅行期间和旅行后遵守预定光照暴露方案的重要性，并得到可穿戴设备和应用程序的支持。我们呼吁体育部与睡眠和昼夜节律专家合作，提供建议并帮助设计这些缓解措施的定制实施，这有助于学生和员工的当前和长期健康和福祉。
