Almost 40% of matches in Qatar will be finishing at midnight local time: What toll will evening matches have on players in the World Cup?
Dr Chris James
Athlete Sleep Specialist | Consultant Clinical Psychologist | Founder & Director of Sleep Athletic
The dominance of evening matches in Qatar
Evening matches aren’t a new phenomenon for elite football players. 7:30pm, 7:45pm and even 8pm kick offs are commonplace for midweek Domestic and European fixtures. The World Cup in Qatar will be taking night time matches to the next level, though, to appeal to the European audience. Over 75% of the matches will be starting at 6pm or later in Qatar. And, remarkably, almost 40% of matches in the tournament will be kicking off at 10pm local time. So, 2/5 of the time players are going to be finishing matches at midnight. And when we reach the knockouts accompanied by the possibility of extra time and penalties, we could see players finishing matches closer to 1am.
The impact of this could be huge.?
Through our work with multiple elite football teams, we’ve noticed that almost every player reports sleeping much worse after an evening match. And these findings have been on the back of 8pm kick offs.?
10pm kick offs are something we’ve never seen before in a major tournament and, in this article, we hope to highlight why this is so important. But, most importantly, what footballers and performance teams can do about it.???
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Why evening matches can lead to even the best sleeper having a bad night
Across our work with elite teams we have noticed that sleep issues after evening matches are widespread. Many players report having to go to bed at 2, 3 or 4am and that their sleep is considerably worse.?
Why’s this the case??
There are a few factors associated with night matches that increase the chances of sleep onset and continuity issues.?
Firstly, players experience something called a post-match buzz due to the elevated levels of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine[1], a hormone that’s key to the body’s fight or flight response. Elevated levels of this neurotransmitter are associated with disturbed sleep, as it traditionally plays a role in helping us wake up. On top of this, players will be dealing with the psychological rush after a match, whether that’s excitement after a strong result or anxiety after a poor performance. The physical and psychological intensity of a World Cup match will make it difficult to wind down - these matches being even later means many players without specialist sleep guidance could be struggling to get to sleep before 4 or 5am.?
Secondly, as we pointed out in our 3rd article in the Sleep and the World Cup series, sleep medication is commonplace in elite football. And one of the reasons for this is that many players use caffeine as an ‘upper’ for performance gains before matches - we expect that many players will feel an extra need to utilise caffeine with the start time of many of the matches in Qatar being later than they’ll have ever experienced. The consequence is an augmentation of their post-match buzz, with the caffeine keeping them even more alert and making it even harder to get to sleep.
And finally, players will likely be dehydrated after matches. With the matches coming so close to bedtime, players could either find they’re waking up from a dry mouth, or they’ll overcompensate and drink lots before bed, and end up waking up needing the bathroom.
And why is a bad night so impactful in the World Cup?
A 4am or 5am bedtime is an issue in general for elite athletes, but at least most players have 5 or 6 days of rest following a Domestic fixture. The turnaround between matches is particularly tight during international tournaments - during the group stage in Qatar, players will only be getting 3 days of rest between their matches. A terrible night of sleep could still be impacting the players by the time their next fixture comes around and will undoubtedly limit recovery in the days preceding the next fixture.
One of the questions we ask elite athletes, to determine when they perform best, is what time they’d choose to complete a physically and/or cognitively demanding task. We have never seen a player put between 10pm and midnight as their answer. So, even the biggest night owls are going to struggle physically and cognitively during the 10pm kick offs.
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As always, whilst most players are likely to be impacted by this, some will feel the effects more than others due to individual differences.?
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So, what can we expect from these players??
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Which players do we see struggle the most?
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So, it’s fair to say that almost all players will struggle with the 10pm kick offs, even those who would describe themselves as owls (evening types). However, people who describe themselves as larks (morning types) are particularly vulnerable. These players will struggle more in-game than other players, as their peak performance time will be the furthest away from kick off time. On top of this, owls could sleep in a bit later to try and fit in more sleep time following a late kick off. Those who are morning types will likely be woken up early by their natural body clock, meaning they’re at greater risk of getting less sleep than evening types.
It’s important to identify which players are going to be most vulnerable to the effects of late matches for a few reasons, and we would recommend doing so by requesting squad-wide screening from a sleep specialist.
Specialist sleep guidance can make all the difference
The important thing to remember is that although we have no control over the kick off times in Qatar, specialist sleep guidance can help tackle the negative effects of the 10pm kick offs.?
We can’t do anything about most players getting back to their bedroom at a time when they’d normally have already been asleep for a couple of hours, but we can help players get to sleep quicker and stay asleep longer once they are back in their hotel.?
We always recommend adopting a bespoke approach to sleep guidance, as every player is unique, but there are a few quick pieces of guidance that all performance teams should be implementing for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar:
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It’s not just the World Cup?
This article highlights the impact that very late kick offs will have during the World Cup in Qatar. However, it’s important to point out that we consistently see traditionally ‘good’ sleepers sleeping badly after evening matches that kick off much earlier in the evening than 10pm. This isn’t just a Qatar World Cup 2022 issue and is actually an issue across elite football. Players have to play at times that will impact their sleep quality because of TV deals, so we can’t expect this to change soon.?
We can still do something about this issue, though, by screening the sleep health of players so we get a clearer idea of what is going on for each individual player, and providing players with specialist support tailored to their specific needs.?
Take home messages
Article by David Thorne, BSc, MSc & Dr Chris James
What’s Sleep Athletic?
At Sleep Athletic we help elite athletes and sports teams unlock the power of sleep to supercharge performance and recovery.?
Our aim is to help athletes to sleep better, so they feel better, perform better, and recover faster.?
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Great article! Also the Impact of deprived sleep on their mental health can be significant. Watching out for a dip in mood is important because it could unmask any underlying issues.
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2 年Brilliant ????