How much sleep does a young athlete really need?

The number is 8–10 hours — and below 7 things break

Adolescents need 8–10 hours of sleep a night. That's not a wellness nicety; it's the working range a growing, training body needs. Below 7 hours, the picture changes for the worse: more illness, more injury, hormonal disruption, and measurably worse academic performance. So if your young athlete is running on six hours and an alarm, the training isn't the first thing I'd fix — the sleep is.

What sleep is actually doing while they're out

Two things worth understanding, because they change how seriously you take this. First, across the waking day a chemical called adenosine builds up — that's "sleep pressure", the growing urge to sleep — and it's cleared in deep NREM sleep. Skip the sleep and the pressure carries over. Second, during sleep the brain fires off bursts called sleep spindles that move the day's learning from short-term memory in the hippocampus into long-term storage in the cortex. In plain terms: practice without sleep is wasted practice. The session happened; without the sleep, it doesn't stick.

There's also a reason your teenager genuinely can't fall asleep at 9pm. In adolescence the body clock shifts — melatonin arrives later and sleep pressure builds more slowly — so they move into a natural night-owl phase. A 7am school alarm for a teenager is roughly the equivalent of a 4am alarm for an adult. They're not being lazy; their biology is working against the timetable.

Where we stand: sleep before extra training

So here's the brand position, and I'll say it plainly: sleep before extra training. If it comes down to a choice between squeezing in another session and getting a full night, sleep wins every time. A tired body trains worse and gets hurt more — you're paying for the extra session twice.

I put my money where my mouth is on this. I track sleep with every client, every session — I ask at the start of the session how they slept, and I adapt what we do accordingly. Sleep, for me, is as important as the training itself.

I once moved a golfer's session from 7am to 11am the morning after he'd won a tournament — he was running on adrenaline and no real sleep, and fatigue both raises injury risk and worsens performance. The session could wait. The recovery couldn't.

A sleep-hygiene checklist for the whole house

Sleep is a household habit, not a child's problem to solve alone. These are the levers that work:

• Lead by example — your screens and bedtime set the tone too.
• Consistent sleep and wake times, including weekends.
• Blue-light / night mode on devices in the evening.
• 30 minutes of daylight during the day, but not within 2 hours of bed.
• No caffeine, nicotine or alcohol in the evening.
• Avoid large, spicy or sugary food late at night.
• A small bedtime snack if needed — milk, banana, kiwi or cherry juice.
• No naps after 3pm.
• Cool air, warm bedding.
• A dark, gadget-free bedroom.
• Phone in another room overnight.

None of these is dramatic on its own. Stacked together, they're the difference between 6 broken hours and 9 solid ones — and that difference shows up in every session, every match and every report card.

This guide is for understanding and decisions at home — it isn't medical advice. If your child has ongoing sleep problems, excessive daytime tiredness or a suspected sleep disorder, speak to your GP.