Training Schedule and Sleep in Adolescent Swimmers

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Sleep Medicine
• Adolescent Health

Background:

• Insufficient sleep duration and inconsistent sleep patterns negatively impact athletic performance and overall health.
• Research on the intraindividual sleep variability in athletes is limited.
• Understanding sleep patterns in adolescent athletes is crucial for optimizing training and recovery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare total sleep time (TST) and TST variability before early morning practices versus other nights in adolescent swimmers.
• To investigate wakening after sleep onset and sleep efficiency in relation to training schedules.
• To examine sleep characteristics following days with varying training session timings (morning only, evening only, or both).

Main Methods:

• Utilized wrist-worn accelerometers to monitor sleep for one week in 108 adolescent swimmers (mean age 16.1 years).
• Employed adjusted regression analyses and linear mixed models to analyze associations between training schedules and sleep parameters.
• Measured total sleep time (TST), TST variability, wakening after sleep onset, and sleep efficiency.

Main Results:

• Mean TST was 6 hours and 32 minutes, with a TST variability of 63 minutes.
• Increased frequency of early morning practices was associated with decreased TST and increased TST variability.
• TST preceding early training was significantly shorter (5:36 for <16 and 5:06 for ≥16 years) compared to nights before later or no morning training.

Conclusions:

• Adolescent swimmers exhibit notably short total sleep time before early morning training sessions.
• Higher engagement in early morning practices leads to increased sleep variability among these athletes.
• These findings highlight the detrimental effects of demanding training schedules on adolescent swimmers' sleep patterns.