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Sleep/wake behavior prior to and following competition in elite female netball athletes

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Abstract

Purpose

To determine the sleep routines of elite athletes in the lead up to and following competition.

Methods

Ten elite female netballers (mean ± SD; age = 23 ± 6 years) completed a survey on their perceived sleep duration (PSD) and perceived sleep quality (PSQ) on three consecutive nights, the night before the game (G − 1), the night of the game (G), and the night following the game (G + 1) on 15 separate occasions during the in-season competition period. Additionally, the sleep behavior of 11 elite female netballers (mean ± SD; age = 23 ± 4 years) was monitored on two separate occasions using wrist-actigraphy to assess total time in bed (TTB), total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency (SE), sleep latency (SL), wake episodes per night (WE), sleep onset time (SOT), and wake time (WT) on G − 1, G, and G + 1 nights.

Results

There was a significant difference in PSD from G − 1 to G (8:29 to 6:52 h:min, d = − 1.98) and from G to G + 1 (6:52 to 8:09 h:min, d = 1.70). TST was significantly different from G − 1 to G (8:31 to 6:46 h:min, d = − 1.36). At G + 1, TST remained significantly below the G − 1 level (7:23 and 8:31 h:min, respectively, d = − 0.97). SOT was significantly later on the night of the game (23:57), and was also significantly delayed at G + 1 (23:17) compared to G − 1 (22:41).

Conclusion

Following an evening netball game, PSD, TST, TTB and SOT are impaired. Additionally, TST and TTB remain impaired on the night following competition.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank each of the athletes for their participation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health, Sport and Human Performance, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Shannon O’Donnell, Christopher Martyn Beaven & Matthew Driller

  2. Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic Netball, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Shannon O’Donnell

Authors
  1. Shannon O’Donnell
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  2. Christopher Martyn Beaven
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  3. Matthew Driller
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Correspondence to Shannon O’Donnell.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed written consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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O’Donnell, S., Beaven, C.M. & Driller, M. Sleep/wake behavior prior to and following competition in elite female netball athletes. Sport Sci Health 14, 289–295 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-017-0425-y

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