Sleep, Performance, and Football: Why Better Decisions Matter More Than Perfect Nights

In football, we often talk about small improvements that collectively make a meaningful difference to performance.

 Training quality, recovery, nutrition, and psychology are all now widely recognised as performance drivers.

Sleep deserves to sit firmly in that category, not as a luxury, and not as something to obsess over, but as a foundation that supports everything else.

In my work with high-performing individuals, sleep is one of the most influential and misunderstood aspects of performance.

the goal is not to achieve “perfect sleep” every night.

Why Sleep Matters in Football

Sleep underpins cognitive sharpness, reaction time, coordination and tissue repair (just to name a few).

When sleep is consistently disrupted, players are more likely to feel flat, overloaded, or mentally fatigued. Over time, this increases the risk of injury, illness, and burnout.

However, the goal is not to achieve “perfect sleep” every night. Football simply doesn’t allow for that.

The Reality of Sleep in the Game

Training load, match scheduling and competition demands commonly disrupt footballers’ sleep, particularly through late sessions, travel and changes to normal sleep routines.

As a result, sleep is often addressed only once performance drops — rather than as part of a proactive, long-term performance strategy.

One imperfect night of sleep rarely defines performance.

When Sleep Tracking Becomes Counterproductive

In recent years, wearables and tracking tools have made sleep more visible than ever. While this has helped raise awareness, I increasingly see situations where too much focus on sleep data becomes unhelpful.

Individuals have described how seeing poor sleep scores before a match increased anxiety and self-doubt, sometimes affecting performance more than the sleep disruption itself.

One imperfect night of sleep rarely defines performance. Anxiety about it often can. Sleep data should inform behaviour, not dictate confidence.

Context Matters More Than Scores

Some of the best performances may have come after disrupted sleep. What matters most is chronic patterns, not isolated nights.

For that reason, the most effective performance environments are towards aggregated trends viewed over weeks, systems-led interpretation and education around normal sleep variability

In this context, sleep becomes a background support system rather than a source of pressure.

Subjective wellness reporting (including perceived sleep quality, fatigue, soreness, and mental state) can be extremely valuable

Using Wellness Insight Responsibly

Subjective wellness reporting (including perceived sleep quality, fatigue, soreness, and mental state) can be extremely valuable when used consistently and intelligently.

When this information is aggregated and viewed over time, it helps performance staff identify signs, adjust training/recovery and support players.

Importantly, this approach keeps the player at the centre of the process. They feel listened to, rather than monitored, and insight is used to guide decisions not label readiness on a given day.

A Smarter Approach to Sleep and Performance

Football is evolving in how it understands performance.

Sleep, recovery, and wellbeing are no longer “soft” considerations. They are strategic factors that when supported with education, expert guidance, and contextualised insight, become some of the most powerful tools in a performance environment

By Dr David Garley, The Better Sleep Clinic

David is a GP and diagnoses and treats a wide variety of sleep disorders. He previously worked as a respiratory doctor in the NHS sleep clinic in the Bristol Royal Infirmary.

David teaches sleep medicine to GPs and other healthcare workers within the NHS and in private clinics.