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Sex differences in subjective sleep quality, sleepiness, and health-related quality of life among collegiate soccer players

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Abstract

Sleep is an important recovery phase after exercise that should be taken into account by athletes. Females are likely to be dissatisfied with their sleep quality, report sleepiness and, consequently, experience impaired quality-of-life (QOL). However, limited data are available regarding sex differences in sleep quality, sleepiness, and QOL in athletes. Male and female collegiate soccer players were recruited. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to assess subjective sleep quality and the Japanese Version of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (JESS) was used to evaluate subjective sleepiness. Health-related QOL was evaluated through the short form (SF)-8. Logistic regression analyses were undertaken to assess associations between poor sleep quality (defined as PSQI ≥ 6), subjective sleepiness (defined as JESS ≥ 11), and poor QOL (defined as <median value). Overall, 64 male and 30 female soccer players were enrolled. Females had significantly lower BMIs and less years of soccer experience compared to males. Interestingly, females had shorter sleep duration by a half an hour compared to males. Females were more likely to have poor sleep quality than males (50.0 % in females and 17.2 % in males, P = 0.002). Females were also more likely to have subjective sleepiness than males (56.6 % in females and 34.4 % in males, P = 0.041). Finally, female gender was associated with low social functioning, mental health, and mental component summary scores of SF-8. We have shown that in collegiate soccer players, female players had poorer subjective sleep quality and more impaired health-related QOL compared to male players.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health and Sports Science, Juntendo University, 1-1 Hirakagakuendai, Inzai, Chiba, 270-1695, Japan

    Natsue Koikawa & Sayaka Shimada

  2. Cardiovascular Respiratory Sleep Medicine, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bukyoku, Tokyo, 113-8421, Japan

    Shoko Suda & Takatoshi Kasai

  3. Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Juntendo University School of Medicine, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bukyoku, Tokyo, 113-8421, Japan

    Shoko Suda, Azusa Murata & Takatoshi Kasai

Authors
  1. Natsue Koikawa
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  2. Sayaka Shimada
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  3. Shoko Suda
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  4. Azusa Murata
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  5. Takatoshi Kasai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takatoshi Kasai.

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Ethical approval

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. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Juntendo University.

Informed consent

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

Funding

This study was supported by MEXT*-Supported Program for the Strategic Research Foundation at Private Universities, 2014–2018 (*Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology); Japanese Center for Research on Women in Sport, Juntendo University; and Juntendo University Young Investigator Joint Project Award 2015 (K1517).

Conflict of interest

Takatoshi Kasai and Shoko Suda are affiliated with a department endowed by Philips Respironics, ResMed, Teijin Home Healthcare, and Fukuda Denshi. The other authors have nothing to disclose.

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Koikawa, N., Shimada, S., Suda, S. et al. Sex differences in subjective sleep quality, sleepiness, and health-related quality of life among collegiate soccer players. Sleep Biol. Rhythms 14, 377–386 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-016-0068-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-016-0068-4

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