GIFs helping footballers to sleep better

A recent study led by the University of Kent’s School of Natural Sciences has found that short animations known as GIFs (Graphic Interchange Format) can improve the sleep of professional female footballers.

Poor sleep quality is common among elite athletes, with sleep environment and bedtime routine often to blame. Many professional athletes look to sleep coaches to help improve their sleep, which can have a big impact on their performances and wellbeing, but this new research demonstrates that simpler sleep enhancement strategies could actually be adopted.

Dr Julie Gooderick and her team of researchers worked with professional footballers from the Women’s Super League (WSL), the highest level of women's football in England, to assess self-reported target areas of sleep hygiene that needed improvement in individuals. Sleep hygiene can be defined as practicing habits that facilitate sleep. GIFs were then designed with the purpose of giving a singular sleep hygiene message to each individual. The message was accompanied by a purposely short text to facilitate a high engagement rate. Messages included ‘Screens away 30 minutes before bed’ and ‘Replace caffeinated drink with non-caffeinated herbal tea or water’.

All participants received their bespoke messages daily across a two-week intervention period at a consistent time of 8pm, with the intention of them actioning the sleep hygiene prompt.

Following the GIF interventions the professional footballers reported improvements to their sleep by the end of the nine-week study. Even more impressively, these improvements happened mid-season, which is typically associated with higher stress in footballers than during pre-season.

Dr Gooderick said: ‘Working with professional female athletes for this study not only allowed us to help improve their sleep quality, but it also helped us to identify a new time- and resource-efficient method of sleep enhancement.

‘Initial evidence highlights a promising strategy using GIF messaging as an individualised sleep hygiene education intervention. This strategy may provide the opportunity for sport coaches and athletes to access specialist advice in sleep without the potential constraint of resources or location for both themselves and sleep specialists.’

The research paper ‘The use of individualised, media-based sleep hygiene education for professional female footballers’ is published in the European Journal of Sport Science. doi: 10.1002/ejsc.12247