This is a guest contribution. The views are the author's own, shared in the spirit of the open discussion the Foundation likes to host.
When we talk about recovery in collegiate athletics, we reach first for the obvious levers: nutrition, hydration, training load. The one we mention least is also the one most student-athletes get least of, and it is the cheapest intervention we have. Sleep.
The modern bedroom is a lit screen
A college athlete's evening increasingly ends not with lights-out but with a glowing phone. Group chats, streaming, highlight reels and the broad world of online entertainment all compete for the hours the body needs to repair. The online leisure landscape is vast and always open, spanning everything from social feeds and gaming to entertainment and sports platforms such as betpas, and the common thread is that none of them keep office hours. For an eighteen-year-old with a 6 a.m. lift, that availability is the problem.
What sports medicine staff can do
We are not going to legislate screens out of a dorm, and we should not try. What works is education framed around performance, not restriction. Help athletes see the trade: every hour of scrolling past a sensible bedtime is an hour stolen from the recovery that shows up in their numbers. Encourage a wind-down routine, a charging station outside the bedroom, and consistent sleep and wake times even on weekends.
Sleep is not a soft topic. It touches concussion recovery, injury risk, mood and immune function. For the clinical side of recovery and return-to-play, see the Foundation's concussion resources and our broader resource library.