title: Sleep/wake behaviours of elite athletes from individual and team sports.
abstract: Sleep is an essential component for athlete recovery due to its physiological and psychological restorative effects, yet few studies have explored the habitual sleep/wake behaviour of elite athletes. The aims of the present study were to investigate the habitual sleep/wake behaviour of elite athletes, and to compare the differences in sleep between athletes from individual and team sports. A total of 124 (104 male, 20 female) elite athletes (mean ± s: age 22.2 ± 3.0 years) from five individual sports and four team sports participated in this study. Participants' sleep/wake behaviour was assessed using self-report sleep diaries and wrist activity monitors for a minimum of seven nights (range 7-28 nights) during a typical training phase. Mixed-effects analyses of variances were conducted to compare the differences in the sleep/wake behaviour of athletes from two sport types (i.e. individual and team). Overall, this sample of athletes went to bed at 22:59 ± 1.3, woke up at 07:15 ± 1.2 and obtained 6.8 ± 1.1 h of sleep per night. Athletes from individual sports went to bed earlier, woke up earlier and obtained less sleep (individual vs team; 6.5 vs 7.0 h) than athletes from team sports. These data indicate that athletes obtain well below the recommended 8 h of sleep per night, with shorter sleep durations existing among athletes from individual sports.
authors.affiliation: a Appleton Institute for Behavioural Science , Central Queensland University , Adelaide , Australia.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lastella
authors.forename: Gregory D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Roach
authors.forename: Shona L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Halson
authors.forename: Charli
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sargent
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D056352:Athletes; D001519:Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012890:Sleep; D013177:Sports
keywords: Sleep behaviour; individual sports; team sports; wrist activity monitor