You Snooze, You Win? An Ecological Dynamics Framework Approach to Understanding the Relationships Between Sleep and Sensorimotor Performance in Sport

Abstract

Sleep has a widespread impact across different domains of performance, including sensorimotor function. From an ecological dynamics perspective, sensorimotor function involves the continuous and dynamic coupling between perception and action. Sport performance relies on sensorimotor function as successful movement behaviors require accurate and efficient coupling between perceptions and actions. Compromised sleep impairs different aspects of sensorimotor performance, including perceptual attunement and motor execution. Changes in sensorimotor performance can be related to specific features of sleep, notably sleep spindles and slow waves. One unaddressed area of study is the extent to which specific sleep features contribute to overall sport-specific performance.

Keywords: Affordance; Perception-action coupling; Sleep; Slow wave sleep; Spindles; Visuomotor.