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Published on: April 18, 2019
Sleep Disturbances and Risk of Sports Injury Among Collegiate Student-Athletes
Brett A Messman1,2, Kyla A Petrie3, E Whitney G Moore4
1Department of Psychology, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between collegiate student-athletes' sleep and injury status.
Design:
This study was a secondary analysis of observational survey data of student-athletes collected across 2 time periods, October 2020 and January 2021.
Setting:
Data were collected as part of an ongoing national (USA) longitudinal survey investigating student-athletes' well-being in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Participants:
Participants were made-up of a subsample of participants from the parent study. Data from 89 exact matched pairs (across 5 demographics) of injured and noninjured student-athletes (68.5% NCAA Division I, 82.0% women) were assessed.
Independent Variables:
Student-athletes' sleep disturbance levels were the primary independent variable of interest. Analytic models also covaried for gender, racial, and ethnic identities, sport in-seasons, and previous injury status.
Main Outcome Measures:
Participant endorsed injury status was the main outcome measure of interest. Hypotheses were formulated during the data collection of the parent study.
Results:
Student-athletes injured in January 2021 reported higher average sleep disturbances in both October 2020 and January 2021 than noninjured student-athletes but not student-athletes injured in October. In addition, October 2020 sleep disturbances were a significant predictor ( P = 0.007) of injury, such that odds of student-athletes being injured increased 1.07 times for each unit increase in their sleep disturbances controlling for their identities, sport in-season, and previous injury status.
Conclusions:
Findings signal support for the screening and targeting of student-athletes' sleep problems to reduce potential occurrences of sports-related injuries in student-athletes.
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