How Sensor Data Can Guide Sleep Behaviors in Athletes

Technological advances in sleep monitoring have seen an explosion of devices used to gather important sleep metrics. These devices range from instrumented rings through to at-home polysomnography devices. Alongside these developments in sleep technologies, there have been concomitant increases in the monitoring of sleep in athletic populations, both in the research and practical settings. The increase in sleep monitoring in sport is likely due to the increased knowledge of the importance sleep plays in the recovery process of an athlete as well as the well-reported challenges that athletes may face with their sleep. This chapter will highlight the importance of sleep to athletic performance, discuss various wearable tools and technologies being used to monitor sleep in the sport setting, evaluate the role that wearables may play in guiding behavior change in athletes, and identify some of the limitations of sleep wearables in the sport and athlete setting. We also provide some case-study examples from the elite sport setting where wearable devices have been used with athletes.