How do lifestyle decisions such as smoking, alcohol, recreational drugs, rest and activity levels affect health and performance?
The effects of lifestyle decisions on health and performance: smoking, alcohol, recreational/social drugs, rest and sleep, and physical activity levels, and how positive choices support a healthy active lifestyle.
A focused CCEA GCSE Physical Education answer on lifestyle decisions, covering the effects of smoking, alcohol, recreational drugs, rest and sleep and activity levels on health and performance, and how positive choices support a healthy lifestyle.
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What this dot point is asking
CCEA wants you to explain how lifestyle decisions affect health and performance: the effects of smoking, alcohol, recreational/social drugs, rest and sleep, and physical activity levels, and how positive choices support a healthy active lifestyle. These are everyday choices, separate from the performance-enhancing drugs covered under ethics in sport.
Smoking
For an endurance athlete the loss of oxygen carriage is especially damaging, because their performance depends on getting oxygen to the muscles.
Alcohol
Alcohol dehydrates the body, slows reaction time and judgement, reduces coordination and balance, adds empty calories that can cause weight gain, and harms recovery and sleep. For a performer this means slower reactions, poorer skill and weaker recovery from training, as well as long-term health risks such as liver disease.
Recreational and social drugs
Recreational or social drugs (such as cannabis or other illegal substances) damage health and impair coordination, judgement and reaction time, so they reduce performance and can be dangerous in sport. They are separate from the performance-enhancing drugs banned in competition, which are covered under ethics and drugs in sport.
Rest, sleep and recovery
This links to the principle of recovery in training: rest is part of getting fitter, not the opposite of it.
Activity levels and positive choices
Regular physical activity builds fitness and protects health, while a sedentary lifestyle lowers fitness and raises the risk of obesity, heart disease and poor mental health. Positive lifestyle decisions, not smoking, limiting alcohol, avoiding recreational drugs, getting enough sleep and staying active, work together to support a healthy, high-performing body.
Examples in context
Example 1. Why elite athletes avoid alcohol in season. A professional footballer avoids alcohol during the season because it dehydrates the body, slows reactions, adds empty calories and harms recovery and sleep. Cutting it out keeps them sharper, leaner and better recovered, showing how a single lifestyle decision affects performance.
Example 2. Sleep as a training tool. Many top athletes treat sleep as seriously as training, aiming for eight or more hours, because the body repairs muscle and consolidates skills during sleep. This is the positive side of the rest-and-recovery point: good sleep makes the rest of their training work.
Try this
Q1. State two effects of smoking that reduce a performer's endurance. [2 marks]
- Cue. Carbon monoxide reduces oxygen carriage; tar damages the lungs and reduces lung capacity.
Q2. Give two reasons why enough rest and sleep help a performer improve. [2 marks]
- Cue. The body repairs and adapts during rest; enough sleep reduces fatigue and the risk of injury.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of CCEA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
CCEA 2021 Paper 14 marksDescribe the effects of smoking on the body and explain how it harms a performer.Show worked answer →
Up to four marks for effects of smoking linked to performance.
Carbon monoxide in smoke binds to red blood cells in place of oxygen, so less oxygen reaches the muscles and the performer tires sooner.
Tar damages and narrows the airways and lungs, reducing lung capacity and gas exchange, so breathing during exercise is harder.
Smoking raises heart rate and blood pressure and narrows blood vessels, increasing the risk of coronary heart disease.
Over time the performer's aerobic fitness and endurance fall, so they cannot work as hard or as long.
Markers reward effects such as reduced oxygen carriage, damaged lungs, raised heart rate and lower endurance, each linked to poorer performance.
CCEA 2022 Paper 16 marksEvaluate how lifestyle decisions about alcohol, rest and activity affect an athlete's health and performance.Show worked answer →
Up to two marks per factor (alcohol, rest, activity), rewarding the effect and the link to the athlete, with evaluation for the top band.
Alcohol: alcohol dehydrates the body, slows reaction time and judgement, adds empty calories that can cause weight gain, and harms recovery, so it lowers performance and long-term health.
Rest and sleep: enough rest and sleep allow the body to recover and adapt to training; too little leads to fatigue, poor concentration and a higher risk of injury and illness.
Activity levels: regular activity builds fitness and protects health, while a sedentary lifestyle lowers fitness and raises the risk of obesity and heart disease.
Evaluation: positive lifestyle decisions reinforce each other, for example good rest plus regular activity and avoiding alcohol, so the athlete who manages all three gains the most; a single poor choice can undo training gains.
Markers reward effects of alcohol, the role of rest and sleep, the effect of activity levels, application to the athlete and an evaluative judgement.
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