Welcome back, Sleep4Performance Radio Season 2 has commenced.

Our first guest is Dr Amy Bender from Canada. Amy is the Clinical Program Director of Athlete Services at the Centre for Sleep and Human Performance and is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Kinesiology at the University of Calgary. She received her PhD and Master of Science degrees in Experimental Psychology from Washington State University specializing in sleep EEG. Her current research focuses on optimizing sleep in Canadian Olympic Team athletes and the impact on performance.

Her research interests stem from being an athlete herself; she is a Hall of Fame basketball player, has enjoyed some mountaineering, completed an Ironman in 2009, and currently runs after her 3 children who are all 5 and under. She is driven to help high-performers optimize sleep to enhance their well-being and productivity.

Check out Amy’s recent publication titled the The Clinical Validation of the Athlete Sleep Screening Questionnaire: an Instrument to Identify Athletes that Need Further Sleep Assessment. The Clinical Validation of the Athlete Sleep Screening Questionnaire: an Instrument to Identify Athletes that Need Further Sleep Assessment. Previous research has established that general sleep screening questionnaires are not valid and reliable in an athlete population. The Athlete Sleep Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) was developed to address this need. While the initial validation of the ASSQ has been established, the clinical validity of the ASSQ has yet to be determined. The main objective of the current study was to evaluate the clinical validity of the ASSQ.

You can follow Amy on Twitter and Instagram @Sleep4sport