Studies in the wider population show that habitually sleeping <7 hours/night increases susceptibility to respiratory infection. Research only scratches the surface on how sleep influences athlete health. Studies investigating sleep in athletes often suffer from inadequate experimental control, a lack of females and questions concerning the validity of the chosen sleep assessment tools. Athletic performance is reduced by a night or more without sleep, but the influence on performance of partial sleep restriction over 1–3 nights, a more real-world scenario, remains unclear. Professor Neil P Walsh, School of Sport and Exercise Science, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK n.walshljmu.ac.ukĮlite athletes are particularly susceptible to sleep inadequacies, characterised by habitual short sleep (<7 hours/night) and poor sleep quality (eg, sleep fragmentation).

13 Cummings School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

12 Sleep and Health Research Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.

11 Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

10 Laboratory LAMHESS (EA6312), University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, Nice, France.

9 School for Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Bolton, Bolton, UK.8 Sports Science Department, Aspire Academy, Doha, Qatar.7 School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.6 English Institute of Sport, London, UK.

5 English Institute of Sport, Bisham Abbey National High Performance Centre, Marlow, UK.4 Laboratory Sport, Expertise and Performance (EA 7370), French National Institute of Sport (INSEP), Paris, France.3 Appleton Institute for Behavioural Science, Central Queensland University, Adelaide, Queensland, Australia.2 School of Behavioural and Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.1 Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Science, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK.

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