Exhausted by design: coaching, care, and sleep in the NCAA

Abstract

This article explores a growing cultural preoccupation with sleep in college sports and the implications of this trend for coach researchers and practitioners. Using an interdisciplinary framework, this work adds to conversations about care in coaching from a socio-cultural perspective. While new interest in the sleep of college athletes could be seen as compassionate, it is vital for coaches to be aware of the politics and consequences of sleep-enhancement frameworks. Issues around rest and recovery can reveal the limits of care and how well-intended coaching strategies that incorporate sleep may ultimately undermine athlete welfare and deflect attention from the systematic and ecological foundations of wellbeing in sport and society.