In striving for optimal performance, elite athletes draw maximally on their physical and mental capacity. Doing so, they rely heavily on optimal recovery and the ability to get a good night’s sleep. In addition, elite athletes often engage in ‘power napping’. Power naps are short periods of sleep during the day, which athletes use to recover from straining practice in the morning, compensate for lack of sleep during the night, or to rest before an important competition in the evening. Despite clear beliefs about the effectiveness of power napping among athletes and their coaches, scientific evidence for the effectiveness of power napping for performance and recovery in sports is still scarce.
Working towards evidence-based recommendations, Radboud University, the Netherlands Olympic Committee and Netherlands Sports Federation (NOC*NSF), and Mline, therefore initiated the research project 'Sleep for Gold' in 2016.
 
As a postdoctoral research fellow on 'Sleep for Gold' you will be responsible for the designing, performing, and reporting of experimental studies that address the following research questions:
 
1. What is the effect of power napping on cognitive and physical performance of (elite) athletes?
2. How long (duration) and when (timing) should athletes nap in order to maximise power napping effectiveness?
 
In addition, you will write publications based on existing data of elite athletes’ power napping behaviour (monitoring study) and general power napping effectiveness (systematic review).

• you have a strong interest in sleep and sports performance;
• you have recently obtained your PhD in Sport Sciences, Human Movement Sciences, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Neurosciences, or a related field;
• you have excellent research skills, as evidenced by relevant international peer-reviewed publications;
• you can work independently and have broad experience with testing human participants;
• you have strong affinity with sports and working with elite athletes;
• you are highly proficient in both spoken and written English.

• employment: 0.6 - 0.8 FTE
• a maximum gross monthly salary of € 4,852 based on a 38-hour working week (salary scale 11)
• in addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• duration of the contract: the appointment is part-time on the basis of 0.8 fte (2 years). Appointment on the basis of 0.6 or 0.7 fte is possible, the duration of the contract will be prolonged proportionally
• UFO job profile: Researcher, Level 3
• you will be able to make use of our Dual Career Service where our Dual Career Officer will assist with family related support, such as child care, and help your partner prepare for the local labour market and with finding an occupation

 
The intended start date is 1 November 2018.

Are you interested in our excellent employment conditions?

Faculty of Social Sciences
'Sleep for Gold' is a collaboration between Radboud University, the Netherlands Olympic Committee and Netherlands Sports Federation (NOC*NSF), and Mline.
 
You will be appointed in the Behavioural Science Institute (BSI); a multidisciplinary, KNAW-accredited research institute of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Radboud University.
The BSI has state-of-the-art research facilities for observational (field) studies, lab-based experiments, eye-tracking studies, EEG measurements, psychobiological research, and behavioural measurements in real-life and 3D virtual environments. To measure elite athletes’ sleep-wake behaviour in the field, well-validated sleep monitoring equipment (e.g. Actiwatch2, sleep logs, 1-channel EEG) is available.
 
'Sleep for Gold' is embedded in the BSI research programme ’ Work, Health and Performance’. 'Sleep for Gold' was initiated in 2016 and builds on previous research on sleep and performance in elite athletes that was performed by our research group in collaboration with NOC*NSF and several industrial partners (STW project 12865: ’Optimizing sleep to improve performance in elite athletes’).
 
'Sleep for Gold' aims to take the next step and evaluate the effectiveness of power napping.
 
Further information on Behavioural Science Institute
Further information on Mline
Further information on NOC*NSF