10/14/2026
Athletes MUST prioritize sleep! It is tremendously essential!
Sean McVay said it plain. Treating no sleep like a flex is the dumbest thing he ever heard.
He is right. And the data on young athletes is worse than the quote.
A prospective look at adolescent athletes, average age about 15, found that kids averaging less than 8 hours a night were 1.7 times more likely to get hurt than the ones sleeping 8 or more.
In that same group, 65% of the short sleepers got injured. 31% of the ones who got 8-plus hours did. That is not a vibe. That is the difference between available and not available.
Sleep is when the session actually sticks. Growth hormone, tissue repair, reaction time, the ability to cut and decelerate without the joint taking the hit.
You can train hard and still give the work back if the night is short. Extra sleep in one college basketball group improved shooting accuracy by about 9% and cut sprint times. Same players. More hours. Better output.
Most young athletes are not short on sleep because they are grinding. They are short on sleep because the phone is on, the game is late, and nobody has told them the recovery is the job. Prioritize it.
8 to 10 hours when you can. Same bedtime. Dark room. Phone out of the bed.
Save this and send it to the kid who thinks being tired is proof they are working hard.
Follow for the training that actually keeps athletes on the field.
Julian Lo Casto | Basketball Strength Coach
