PERS is a behavioral intervention program for collegiate athletes, with the goal of promoting and teaching productive and affective sleeping habits and rest patters among athletes. Although sleep deprivation is a common theme in the lives of many students, the amount of sleep deprivation varies from school to school and PERS is unique in its efforts by tailoring the program to the specific needs of each individual team. Student athletes are consistently undergoing significant amounts of physical and mental strain, as well as pressure, which can magnify the negative effects of sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation causes decreases in cognitive function for any individual but the addition of physical strain and need for higher than average recovery can be detrimental to student athletes. Insufficient recovery can be the cause of a multitude of issues, such as an inability to focus in class or during study hours is a minuscule concern to student athletes when more severe consequences like stress fractures, muscle damage, and decrease in metabolic function, leading to vitamin deficiencies, are at risk. Conflicting schedules are partially to blame for many issues collegiate athletes face in terms of sleep and recovery, typically the athletic world and the academic world do not add up, as well as the need for rest conflicting with games or competitions. PERS aims to work with willing student athletes at an individual level, working with an instructor to not only comprehend the need for rest and the risk without but consequently formulating an intervention. The intervention would provide a systematic plan to address the problem at the source, with scheduling. .
Methods.
The theory of self-regulation is very applicable to this intervention, self-regulation is necessary in order to achieve goals set and to avoid negative behaviors. Conflict of motivations is typically where self-regulation comes into play, student athletes want to participate in the social scenes of college life but also need to be concerned with health and performance.
