Sleep could play key role in reaching peak performance

Identifying the early risers and the night owls in a squad could be the difference between victory and defeat, new research suggests.

Professional footballers are increasingly being asked to play at a variety of times – from 12.45pm kick-offs on a Saturday through to starts around 9pm on Champions League or Europa League trips to continental Europe.

Academics at the University of Birmingham have identified three broad categories or ‘circadian phenotypes’ – larks, intermediates and owls – by studying athletes’ entrained awakening times, in other words when they usually would wake without the aid of an alarm clock or other disturbance.