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#WHOOPEd Weekly Digest, Vol. 28
Screen time delays bed time, preventing ankle injuries with proprioceptive training, and are former multi-sport athletes more durable in the NBA?
Monday, November 13
Of more than five dozen studies looking at youths ages 5 to 17 from around the world, 90% have found that more screen time is associated with delayed bedtimes, fewer hours of sleep and poorer sleep quality
https://www.colorado.edu/today/2017/11/01/kids-uniquely-vulnerable-sleep-disruption-electronics
- Young children have larger pupils with lenses that are more transparent, so the exposure and sensitivity to light is greater than adults.
- The light from electronics hits the retina in the eye which produces a cascade of signals to the circadian system to suppress the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin.
- This can cause a delay in sleepiness, thus pushing back body clock timing.
- It is also important to note that games, shows and texts may cause cognitive arousal which can decrease sleepiness.
- Important statistics:
- 75% of youths have screen-based media in their bedrooms
- 60% interact with them in the hour before bedtime
- 45% use phone as an alarm
Wednesday, November 15
Prevent ankle sprains by practicing balance activities, also known as proprioceptive training
- A meta-analysis, performed by Schiftan et al., included 7 studies and 3,726 participants.
- The study found that proprioceptive training programs are effective at reducing the rate of ankle sprains, especially for the population of athletes who have a history of ankle sprains.
- What is “proprioceptive training?”
- Proprioception or “neuromuscular facilitation” is knowing where your body is in space.
- This includes balance activities and teaching your body to control position, which can be crucial after injury when trying to return the injured body part to full go (equal strength and range of motion when compared bi-laterally to the same body part).
Thursday, November 16
According to the World Health Organization, 1 in 5 adults experience a mental health issue in a given year. Mental health and mental wellness are not synonymous
https://work.qz.com/1115542/mental-health-and-wellness-are-not-the-same/
- Author Oren Frank notes that HR departments of major universities such as Northwestern, Duke, Michigan and Vanderbilt all offer programming and services under the term “mental health and wellness.”
- The author’s issue with the combination of “mental health” and “mental wellness” is that overall wellness keeps mental health on the sidelines.
- Mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, need as much care and attention as physical disease.
- In the US, 1 in 5 adults are said to experience a mental health issue in a given year.
- Take home point: Mental health is far more important than wellness and it should take the same priority as any other potentially fatal issue.
Friday, November 17
A study by Rugg et al. finds that NBA players, who were multi-sport athletes in high school, played a greater percentage of total games and were less likely to sustain a major injury
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0363546517738736?
- Rugg et al., conducted a study of NBA players and hypothesized that players who “played multiple sports during adolescence would be less likely to experience injury and have higher participation rates in terms of game played and career length when compared with single-sport athletes.”
- The study included first-round draft picks from 2008 to 2015. In total, there were 237 athletes included in the study.
- 36 of the 237 athletes were multi-sport athletes leaving 201 as single-sport athletes in high school.
- The former multi-sport athletes played in a statistically significant greater percentage of total NBA games (78.4% vs. 72.8%, P<0.01).
- Multi-sport athletes were less likely to sustain a major injury (25% vs 43%, P=.03).
- Multi-sport athletes were more active in the league at time of data acquisition, indicating increased longevity in the NBA (94% vs 81.1%, P=.03).