An afternoon nap can boost athletes' endurance

Team ball sports demand a mix of endurance, agility, power and skill, and how well an athlete has recovered can decide how much of that capacity is available on the day. Daytime napping is a popular, cost-free recovery tool, yet its actual effect on objective performance in team-sport athletes had not been systematically pooled across performance domains. This review set out to answer a practical question: does a scheduled nap, taken on top of a normal night's sleep, measurably change what athletes can do afterwards? It also asked whether the length of the nap changes the size of any benefit.

The authors systematically searched five databases — PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and SPORTDiscus — from inception to 18 December 2025. They included randomised controlled trials comparing daytime napping against a no-nap control on objective performance measures in team ball sports athletes. Twelve trials met the criteria, covering 179 athletes in total. Nap interventions were consistently scheduled in the early afternoon, between 13:00 and 15:30, most often starting at 14:00, and were taken following presumed normal nocturnal sleep. Effects were pooled as standardised mean differences, with subgroup analyses by nap duration.

Napping showed a large positive effect on endurance performance (SMD 0.96, 95% CI 0.62 to 1.29) and a moderate improvement in agility (SMD 0.55, 95% CI 0.01 to 1.09). Power and strength showed a moderate positive trend (SMD 0.50), but the confidence interval crossed zero, so this was not statistically clear. Nap duration mattered: naps longer than 60 minutes yielded the largest improvements in endurance (SMD 1.38) and power (SMD 0.84), while moderate naps of 31-60 minutes also conferred substantial benefits. Effects on cognitive and technical performance remained uncertain because the evidence was imprecise.

This is pooled randomised evidence supporting napping as a performance and recovery strategy specifically in team ball sports, a group whose demands span several physical domains at once. The duration finding — bigger effects from moderate and longer naps — adds a practical layer to the broader napping literature. Important gaps remain: the results describe athletes with presumed normal night-time sleep, cognitive and technical skills were not clearly affected, and the total participant pool of 179 is modest. The authors suggest tailoring nap protocols to the demands of specific sports, which future trials will need to test directly.

If you play team sports, this is a reason to think an early-afternoon nap could support endurance and agility later in the day, with longer naps appearing to carry the larger effects in these trials. The evidence is strongest for endurance and weakest for skill-based and cognitive outcomes, which remain uncertain. It is also worth noting the trials examined napping on top of normal night sleep rather than as a fix for a bad night. This is information about what pooled trials found, not a prescription — how any individual responds to napping will vary.