42 Analytics. (2014, April 2).

SSAC14: Competitive Advantage: Sleeping Giants: Are "Zzzz's"

the
NBA's Next Big Performance Metric? [Video file]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=UVPNyXQHh6Y

This source is a video of an interview with Dr. Charles Czeisler, who is a sleep expert
working at the Harvard Medical School. It begins with him discussing how he started out his
career in the NBA and discovered that they do not emphasize the importance of sleep enough to
the NBA players. He discusses how when traveling, coaches should arrange schedules so that the
players do not need to adjust their circadian rhythms. Some of the effects of a lack of sleep on
athletes are delayed reaction time, missed signals in the visual field, decreased testosterone,
increased risk of injury, increased inflammation, lengthened recovery time, decreased ability to
learn, and decreased connection between judgement and emotion. Czeisler says that naps before
games can be very beneficial for players.
To start, this source is authoritative. Charles Czeisler is extremely authoritative because
he is known as the “sleep doctor” and works with NBA teams. He is also who I interviewed and
is trustworthy. This current source was posted in April of 2014. Czeisler covers a variety of
topics, making his interview broad, but also goes into detail in each, making it deep. For
example, he discusses specific data about how reaction time can go from 250 milliseconds to 900
milliseconds if someone is sleep deprived. This interview is accurate in that Czeisler describes
events that have actually occurred in his career and uses real-life examples in his answers, such
as citing that LeBron James takes a nap before every game, which Czeisler knows first-hand.
Lastly, this source fulfills its purpose of informing the sports community to improve performance
in that it portrays the importance of sleep, which is often overlooked, to athletes. He also
eliminates some bias by using quantitative data in his answers.