Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Who Should Be Managing Athletes on Matters Related to Sleep?

Matthew W Driller; Shona L Halson; Cheri D Mah; Haresh Suppiah; Michele Lastella; Dean J Miller; Matthew B Cooke; Ebonie Rio; Alan St Clair Gibson; Amy M Bender; Rachel Harris; Stuart Armstrong; Gary Slater; Michael A Grandner

doi:10.1007/s40279-025-02282-7

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Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Who Should Be Managing Athletes on Matters Related to Sleep?

Journal article

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Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Who Should Be Managing Athletes on Matters Related to Sleep?

Matthew W Driller, Shona L Halson, Cheri D Mah, Haresh Suppiah, Michele Lastella, Dean J Miller, Matthew B Cooke, Ebonie Rio, Alan St Clair Gibson, Amy M Bender, …

Sports Medicine, Vol.55, pp.2065-2071

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-025-02282-7

PMCID: PMC12476300

PMID: 40711719

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Abstract

Optimising sleep health is essential for athlete recovery and performance, but responsibility for managing sleep in high-performance sports is often unclear. Although performance support teams include diverse professionals such as coaches, sport scientists, physiotherapists, sports dietitians, psychologists, and physicians, guidance may be fragmented and inconsistent across training environments and competition schedules. This paper proposes a collaborative multidisciplinary model in which sleep specialists may integrate with existing support staff to deliver unified, evidence-based sleep strategies throughout all phases of athlete preparation. By fostering open communication channels, aligning screening protocols, and coordinating interventions, this model ensures consistent messaging and implementation of sleep initiatives. We also address sleep monitoring via wearable technologies, highlighting device performance and data confidentiality considerations to ensure accurate and ethical use of athlete sleep metrics. Emphasis is placed on creating organisation-wide policies that recognise sleep as an important component to health and performance. Adopting this integrated approach to sleep may enhance overall physical and mental health, reduce injury risk, improve recovery, and ultimately, enhance athletic performance.

Details

Title: Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Who Should Be Managing Athletes on Matters Related to Sleep?
Authors: Matthew W Driller (Corresponding Author) - La Trobe University
Shona L Halson - Australian Catholic University
Cheri D Mah - Stanford University
Haresh Suppiah - La Trobe University
Michele Lastella - Central Queensland University
Dean J Miller - Central Queensland University
Matthew B Cooke - La Trobe University
Ebonie Rio - La Trobe University
Alan St Clair Gibson - University of Aberdeen
Amy M Bender - University of Calgary
Rachel Harris - Australian Institute of Sport
Stuart Armstrong - Angelsea Sports Medicine (New Zealand)
Gary Slater - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Health - Nutrition & Dietetics
Michael A Grandner - University of Arizona
Publication details: Sports Medicine, Vol.55, pp.2065-2071
Publisher: Adis International Ltd.
Date published: 2025
DOI: 10.1007/s40279-025-02282-7
ISSN: 1179-2035
PMID: 40711719; PMC12476300
Copyright note: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Data Availability: Not applicable.
Organisation Unit: School of Health - Nutrition & Dietetics
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991148539102621
Output Type: Journal article

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