Sleep in elite multi-sport athletes: Implications for athlete health and wellbeing

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of clinically relevant sleep problems in elite multi-sport athletes and their associations with sleep hygiene, general health, mood, chronotype, and injury.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: During the competitive season in athletes' home environment.

Participants: Elite multi-sport Irish athletes (n = 58) competing at the 2017 World University Games.

Main outcome measures: Category of clinical sleep problem (Athlete-Sleep-Screening-Questionnaire), sleep hygiene (Sleep Hygiene Index), general health (Subjective Health Complaints), mood (Sports Profile of Mood States), chronotype (Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire), and injury (self-reported injury).

Results: 43% had no clinical sleep problem, 41% had a mild clinical sleep problem, 16% had a moderate clinical sleep problem, none had a severe clinical sleep problem. Therefore, 84% of athletes did not have a clinically significant sleep problem while 16% had a clinically significant sleep problem. One-way-ANOVA revealed significantly worse sleep hygiene (p = 0.002), more general health complaints (p = 0.001) and greater mood disturbance (p = 0.001) among those with clinically significant sleep disturbances compared to those without. No association was found between having a clinically significant sleep problem and either chronotype or previous recent injury.

Conclusions: Athletes with a clinically significant sleep problem were more likely to report worse sleep hygiene, more general health complaints, and mood disturbance.