Sleep facilitates anticipation training of a handball goalkeeping task in novices

• Published in: Psychology of sport and exercise Vol. 53; p. 101841
• Main Authors: Schorer, Jörg, Heibült, Nico, Wilson, Stuart G., Loffing, Florian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2021
• Subjects: Learning; Memory consolidation; Sport; Temporal occlusion; Learning; Memory consolidation; Sport; Temporal occlusion
• ISSN: 1469-0292; 1878-5476
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychsport.2020.101841

Sleep facilitates perceptual, cognitive and motor learning; however, the role of sleep for perceptual learning in sports is yet unclear. Here, we tested the impact of sleep on novices' visual anticipation training using a handball goalkeeping task. To this end, 30 novices were divided randomly in two groups and asked to predict the directional outcome of handball penalties presented as videos. One group did the pre-test and a single session of training in the morning, post-test in the evening on the same day, and the retention test in the next morning again. Conversely, the second group started and finished in the evening. Analyses of prediction accuracy revealed that the group starting in the evening improved largest between pre- and post-test (sleep in-between), while the greatest improvement for the group starting in the morning was found between post- and retention-test (sleep in-between). Overall, our results provide first insight into the potential relevance of sleep for effective anticipation training in sports. •Tested the role of sleep for anticipation training in a handball goalkeeping task.•A single session of training improves novices' anticipation accuracy.•Test performance increased only with sleep in-between but not when awake.•Sleep is likely to facilitate the training of a sport-specific perceptual task.