Abstracts

O11 Irregular sleep/wake patterns in student-athletes

Abstract

Introduction Student-athletes are exposed to a range of academic-related and sport-related risk factors that can threaten healthy sleep practices.1 2 Emerging evidence has shown that student-athletes display a high prevalence of short sleep durations and poor perceived sleep quality.3 However, empirical research has primarily reported sleep outcomes over a set monitoring period rather than assessing day-to-day variability in sleep patterns. Therefore, this study aimed to use the Sleep Regularity Index (SRI) to assess sleep variability in student-athletes and examine the impact of training and competition on sleep outcomes.4

Methods Rugby Union student-athletes (n = 10, all male) from a single University were recruited with no diagnosed sleep disorder and with a sleep difficulty score <12 on the Athlete Sleep Screening Questionnaire.5 Actigraphy monitors (GENEActiv, Activinsights, Cambridge, UK) were worn for 14 consecutive nights. Data were collected during normal teaching weeks and in-season with both morning training and evening matches. Sleep/wake and SRI were assessed using open-source GGIR and sleepreg packages on R software.6

Results Preliminary results showed that participants had an average sleep duration of 6.85 ± 0.46hr. Nights preceding morning training were of shorter duration with earlier sleep onset and offset, while nights following evening matches were of shorter duration with later sleep onset and offset (table 1). The SRI across participants was 72.0 ± 5.4, with a range of 65.4 – 80.0 (figure 1).

Abstract O11 Table 1
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Results of independent t-tests of differences between sleep outcomes on nights preceding training days and following match days compared to all other nights
Abstract O11 Figure 1
Abstract O11 Figure 1

Raster plot of sleep onset and offset for a participant with irregular sleep (SRI: 65.4)

Discussion The findings support previous research indicating that training and competition can impair sleep in athlete populations. Sleep regularity was substantially lower than observed in elite athletes.7 Furthermore, despite only considering nocturnal sleep, the observed SRI was lower than previous research that also included daytime napping, that is typically more erratic in placement and duration.4 8 The impact of training and match scheduling on sleep should be considered, and alterations may reduce sleep irregularity in student-athletes.

References

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  2. Brauer AA, Athey AB, Ross MJ, Grandner MA. Sleep and health among collegiate student athletes. Chest, 2019;156(6):1234–1245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2019.08.1921

  3. Mah CD, Kezirian EJ, Marcello BM, Dement WC. Poor sleep quality and insufficient sleep of a collegiate student-athlete population. Sleep Health, 2018;4(3):251–257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleh.2018.02.005

  4. Phillips AJK, Clerx WM, O’Brien CS, Sano A, Barger LK, Picard RW, Lockley SW, Klerman EB, Czeisler CA. Irregular sleep/wake patterns are associated with poorer academic performance and delayed circadian and sleep/wake timing. Scientific Reports, 2017;7(1):3216. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03171-4

  5. Samuels C, James L, Lawson D, Meeuwisse W. The Athlete Sleep Screening Questionnaire: A new tool for assessing and managing sleep in elite athletes. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2016;50(7):418–422. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2014-094332

  6. Migueles JH, Rowlands AV, Huber F, Sabia S, Van Hees VT. GGIR: A research community-driven open source R package for generating physical activity and sleep outcomes from multi-day raw accelerometer data. Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour, 2019;2(3):188–196. https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2018-0063

  7. Halson SL, Johnston RD, Piromalli L, Lalor BJ, Cormack S, Roach GD, Sargent C. Sleep regularity and predictors of sleep efficiency and sleep duration in elite team sport athletes. Sports Medicine – Open, 2022;8(1):79. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-022-00470-7

  8. Windred DP, Stone JE, McGlashan E, Cain SW, Phillips A. Attitudes towards sleep as a time commitment are associated with sleep regularity. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 2021;19(6):732–742. https://doi.org/10.1080/15402002.2020.1860989

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