Unlocking Courage: How Quality Sleep Helps Athletes Overcome Fear and Anxiety

By Chow Chun Yu and Tan Meng Xiang, Danial

In pursuit of peak performance and victory, athletes often have to make risky decisions. For many, these do not always play out well. Athletes commonly sustain injuries from failed stunts, and these hurt them not just physically but mentally as well.

The fear of re-injury can significantly impair the ability to focus and perform at their best in competitions. This phenomenon is well-documented in sports psychology and is rooted in fear, anxiety, and trauma responses.

What does it mean to overcome fear?

In Psychology, the term “Extinction Learning” refers to when a learned response is weakened or disappears. In this case, the learned response refers to the feeling of pain when the athlete performs the skill or stunt which caused a past-injury.

What we aim to achieve with sleep here is to strengthen the extinction learning process such that athletes are able to overcome this learned response to their previous injury.

How will sleep help?

A study done in 2015 surrounding this phenomena found that adhering to our circadian rhythm and having quality REM sleep is crucial to extinction learning (Pace-Schott et al., 2015).

Sleep helps the brain remember how to reduce fear, making it easier to overcome scary frightening feelings. During REM sleep, the brain strengthens these calming memories, which can make treatments like therapy more effective in helping people get over their fears.

Adhering to our body’s natural sleep-cycle and having quality REM sleep activates specific parts of our brain that are key to extinction learning. This effect becomes heightened when combined, and creates a situation where “Morningness” (being more active and alert in morning hours) becomes a catalyst for increased “Extinction Learning” effects.

Action Plan

For athletes, hesitation or fear can be the defining factor between victory and defeat. Even outside of sport, it is important that athletes do not allow themselves to be hindered by anxiety and to be able to live their lives to the fullest.

Below are a set of guidelines you may use to re-assess and improve your athletic performance:

• Identify the specific factors that are preventing you from achieving your desired performance.

• Consider your sleeping style and habits, do you have good sleep hygiene?

• What form of rehabilitation or training can be done to allow you to safely practise your skills and improve on weaknesses?

  • Combine your subjective period of “Morningness” alongside training (e.g. Exposure Therapy) to boost “Extinction Learning”

References

Pace-Schott, E. F., Germain, A., & Milad, M. R. (2015). Effects of sleep on memory for conditioned fear and fear extinction. Psychological Bulletin, 141(4), 835–857. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000014

About the Contributor: Chow Chun Yu

Chun Yu is a graduate from Nanyang Technological University, where he pursued a degree in Psychology. He is especially drawn to industrial-organisational and behavioural psychology as he is interested in how people think, feel, and work, particularly in creating better workplaces through HR practices, employee engagement, and a strong organisational culture. He has had the chance to explore these areas during research internships at MINDEF, where he looked into ways to measure motivation, engagement, and workplace safety using both traditional and novel methods. Beyond research, he has also taught in a special needs school and served as a section commander in the military. These experiences have shaped his desire to work in roles that make a meaningful difference in how people experience their work.

About the Contributor: Tan Meng Xiang, Danial

Danial is a Psychology major at the Singapore Management University’s School of Social Sciences. Passionate about Biopsychology, Medicine and Clinical Interventions, he contributes to research projects at the A*STAR Institute of Human Development and Potential (IHDP), including the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) study. His academic and research pursuits are driven by a deep interest in understanding the biological underpinnings of human behavior and developing evidence-based approaches to mental health care.

Disclaimer

The summaries and discussions presented here are based on published research in the field of sport, exercise, and performance psychology. They are intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice, diagnosis, or prescribed treatment.

Always seek the advice of your doctor, mental health professional, or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or mental health concerns. This includes inquiries about changes to your existing routine or the implementation of any strategies mentioned that might have significant implications on your health.

Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read here.