Next Big Thing: Sleep Science Is Becoming the NFL’s Secret Weapon

October 5, 2016   ·   Mike Tanier   ·   Jump to comments

Imagine a conference championship game five or 10 years from now. The road team, having traveled to London and Las Vegas for its previous playoff games, arrives in Foxborough and engineers a shocking upset with the help of a surprising strategy: Even though the team's quarterback is an All-Pro known for picking apart defenses, it employs a scaled-back, run-heavy game plan. 
The head coach explains his daring tactical shift at the postgame press conference. "Well, Deshaun's sleep hygiene has been terrible because of all our travel," he says. "Our monitors recorded a 37 percent reduction in high-order decision-making because of poor sleep. Meanwhile, Ezekiel's sleep hygiene has been great, speeding his recovery from that high ankle sprain. So we decided to pound the ball between the tackles."
Coaching decisions based on sleep habits? Precision monitoring of players' sleep and how it affects their health and performance? "Sleep hygiene?"
Does sleep even make that much ...

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