Optimizing Athletic Recovery: The Effects of Recovery Strategies and Sleep on Sports Performance

*You can submit your manuscript through either "Frontiers in Sports and Active Living" or "Frontiers in Sleep". Please select the journal that best aligns with the focus of your research when you click 'submit.'

In the high-stakes world of sports and active living, recovery strategies play a pivotal role in an athlete's performance, well-being, and long-term success. Among the plethora of recovery methods, different protocols of recovery have emerged as popular techniques, lauded for their potential to reduce muscle soreness and accelerate recovery times. However, the broader implications of such recovery protocols, especially their impact on sleep and performance—a critical component of the recovery process—remain underexplored. This Research Topic seeks to illuminate the intersection between different recovery protocols, sleep, and physical performance offering insights into how these practices influence athletic recovery and performance.

We encourage submissions of original research, comprehensive reviews, case studies, and methodological papers that delve into the physiological, psychological, and performance-related aspects of using different recovery strategies, with a particular focus on its effects on sleep and physical performance. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Comparative studies on cold water immersion and other recovery techniques and their effects on sleep and athletic performance.
• Mechanistic insights into how cold-water exposure before sleep affects sleep architecture, recovery markers, and next-day performance.
• Longitudinal studies tracking the impact of regular recovery protocols on sleep patterns, injury prevention, and overall athlete well-being.
• Psychological perspectives on the perceived effectiveness of different protocols on recovery, sleep quality, and its impact on athlete physical performance.
• Innovative methodologies for assessing the impact of recovery strategies on sleep and performance in real-world and laboratory settings.

Contributions should strive to not only advance our understanding of different recovery strategies but also explore practical implications for athletes, coaches, and sports science professionals. We encourage submissions from a diverse array of disciplines including physiology, sports science, psychology, and sleep medicine, reflecting the multifaceted nature of athletic recovery.

By focusing on the critical yet often overlooked component of sleep in the recovery process, this Research Topic aims to foster a deeper understanding of optimal recovery strategies, challenge prevailing assumptions, and open new avenues for research and practice in sports and active living. Contributions will provide valuable insights for enhancing athlete recovery, inform best practices, and potentially shape future guidelines on recovery protocols in sports.

We look forward to your submissions and to advancing the conversation on the integral role of athletic recovery processes.

Keywords: Recovery, Cold-water, Athletes, Recovery Markers, Injury Prevention, Sleep Quality, Physical Performance

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.