The NBA is widely regarded as one of the most gruelling competitions in the world, with huge demands placed on the players.
Each team plays 82 fixtures during the regular season, while another 28 are possible if every series in the play-offs went to the seventh game.
The travel schedule in the NBA is brutal, with many teams covering more than 40,000 miles during the course of the regular season.
This can often have an impact on results, particularly in games between Western Conference and Easter Conference teams.
Research has shown that plane travel can have a negative impact on performance and increase the risk of players suffering injuries.
Read on as we take a closer look at the issue of fatigue in the NBA and how some of its biggest stars try to resolve the problem.
Experts highlight huge health issue
Many people connected to the NBA have switched on to the fact that hectic schedule and excessive travel is a huge problem.
Some experts have claimed that sleep deprivation could become as big an issue for the NBA as concussions have for the NFL and NHL.
The NBA has tried to address the situation by tweaking the schedule, but that appears to be a mere sticking plaster over what looks like a very deep wound.
Players are often getting less than six hours sleep per night, an amount that numerous research studies have shown to be not nearly enough.
Matthew Walker, a sleep expert based at the University of California at Berkeley and founder and director of its Centre for Human Sleep Science, says the NBA is facing a massive health issue.
“Based on the weight of probably now about 10,000 empirical scientific studies, the number of people who can survive on six hours of sleep or less without showing any impairment, rounded to a whole number and expressed as a percent of the population, is zero,” he said.
“We have a circadian rhythm, and there are times when we have been designed to sleep and thus get optimal sleep.
“Trying to sleep during the day results in worse sleep quantity and quality and leads to significant poor health outcomes. We know this from hundreds of studies in night time shift workers.”
James extols the virtues of sleep
As one of the greatest basketball players of all time, it is fair to say that LeBron James knows what it takes to be successful.
James has fully embraced the latest research on mattresses and sleep by striving to get eight hours of sleep per night wherever possible.
“That’s the best way for your body to physically and emotionally be able to recover and get back to 100 percent as possible,” he told the Tim Ferris Show.
“Now, will you wake up and feel 100 percent? There are some days you don’t. So, some days you feel better than others. But the more, and more, and more time that you get those eight – if you can get nine, that’s amazing.”
In situations where James has been unable to get enough rest, he takes time out from his day to fit in a power nap to top up his sleep tally.
His trainer, Mike Mancia, says that James focuses on setting a comfortable temperature in his bedroom and ditches electronic devices well before he goes to sleep.
Mancia believes the latter point is particularly pertinent and suggests other NBA stars would benefit from taking a leaf out of James’ book.
“Just turn everything off probably a half hour to 45 minutes before you actually want to go to sleep, and just really committing yourself to that,” he said.
Iguodala proof that sleep works
Andre Iguodala is living proof that getting enough quality sleep can have a positive impact on athletic performance.
When he was in college the forward used to play video games well into the early hours of the morning, before grabbing a few hours’ sleep.
He continued in the same vein after joining the Golden State Warriors in 2013 and failed to hit the heights he was thought capable of.
Iguodala eventually addressed the situation by linking up with Cheri Mah, a physician scientist at the UC San Francisco’s Human Performance Centre.
She focused on the quality and timing of Iguodala‘s sleep, in addition to ensuring that the player made it more of a priority in his life.
Mah’s efforts paid off, with Iguodala’s on-court performances improving to such an extent that he even won the Most Valuable Player award in the 2015 NFA Finals.
“The comparison most of us make, when talking about the importance of sleep, is to performance-enhancing drugs,” said Mah.
“All these athletes are looking for that extra one percent boost in performance. But when you look at the research, it suggests a solid foundation of rest and recovery is worth way more than one percent.”
The NBA and sleep – the final word
The NBA’s packed schedule and excessive schedule means there is still plenty of work to be done before the issue of fatigue is resolved.
However, with top stars like James and Iguodala highlighting the benefits of good quality sleep, hopefully the league will take further steps to ease the burden on the players.