Poor sleep nearly doubles injury risk for recreational runners

If you're running before dawn to fit training into your schedule, the research has a blunt message: you might be undoing the work the moment you skip sleep.

A study of 425 recreational runners found that those with shorter sleep duration, lower sleep quality, or frequent sleep problems were almost twice as likely to get injured compared to runners who slept well. The gap is significant enough that it rivals other injury risk factors most runners obsess over.

"While runners focus on mileage, nutrition and recovery strategies, sleep tends to fall to the bottom of the list," says Jan de Jonge, a work and sports psychologist at Eindhoven University of Technology who led the research. "Our data shows that poor sleepers were 1.78 times more likely to report injuries than those with stable, good quality sleep."

That translates to a 68% likelihood of sustaining an injury over a 12-month period for sleep-deprived runners — a stark reminder that rest isn't a luxury add-on to training, it's foundational to it.

Why Sleep Matters More Than You Think

Up to 90% of runners experience injury at some point, costing millions in medical bills and lost work time. Most runners know to stretch, fuel properly, and build gradually. Fewer treat sleep with the same rigor.

The research examined sleep across three dimensions: how long runners slept, how good that sleep felt, and whether they had sleep disorders. Runners who struggled to fall asleep, woke frequently during the night, or rarely felt rested were most vulnerable. Those with consistent sleep schedules and genuine rest reported significantly fewer injuries.

The mechanism is straightforward. Sleep is when your body repairs muscle tissue, regulates hormones, and consolidates the neural patterns you built during training. When sleep is disrupted or insufficient, all of that breaks down. Your tissues don't recover as well. Your hormones stay dysregulated. Your focus — which affects running form and decision-making — diminishes. The compounding effect is injury.

De Jonge notes that runners balancing training with work, family, and other commitments may actually need more sleep than the standard seven to nine hours recommended for adults. Athletes often benefit from additional rest, including short naps, to recover properly.

The practical steps are unglamorous but effective: consistent bedtimes, limiting screens before sleep, reducing caffeine and alcohol, and keeping your bedroom quiet and cool. None of this requires special equipment or a subscription. It requires treating sleep as a training component, not an afterthought.

"Sleep should be recognized not only as a recovery tool, but also as a potential predictor of injury vulnerability," de Jonge concludes. "More training doesn't always equal better performance. But better sleep almost always does."

The study was published in Applied Sciences.