Sleep is a hot commodity for nearly everyone. There’s never enough time to get the proper amount of it, and Philadelphia 76ers forward Tobias Harris sees it as the looming problem in the NBA. Via ESPN:

“I think in a couple years,” he says, “[sleep deprivation] will be an issue that’s talked about, like the NFL with concussions.”

Despite the league changing around its scheduling procedures, players still aren’t getting the proper amount of sleep and it may be taking a toll on their performance, injury rate and long-term health. ESPN’s Baxter Holmes detailed the issue in a feature out Monday.

Why are NBA players lacking sleep?

Dr. Charles Czeisler, the director of sleep medicine at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said professional athletes are not immune from the public health problem of insufficient sleep. He told ESPN that players he’s talked to sleep on average five hours a night, and some “very famous” ones have told him it’s more like three to four hours for them. With a pre-game nap, it’s approximately six hours of sleep per 24-hour cycle. But naps don’t allow the brain to fully cycle through the stages of sleep and it is not as good as overnight sleep.

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