Relationships Between Training Load, Perceived Cognitive Load and Sleep in Student-Athletes

Sleep is particularly important for student-athletes in the pursuit of both academic success and athletic performance. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between training load (TL), perceived cognitive workload, and sleep in varsity male volleyball athletes. The secondary aim was to understand the physiological and cognitive mechanisms leading to sleep disturbances following a match. Twelve varsity players on a men's university volleyball team were examined for 12 weeks of the competitive season. Sleep, internal TL and cognitive load were assessed using daily surveys. External TL was assessed using wearable jump monitors during training and matches. Participants filled the Pre-Sleep Arousal Scale to assess pre-sleep arousal and the Ottawa Mental Skills Assessment Tool to assess mental skills after eight matches. Our results show that the perceived cognitive load had a negative impact on total sleep time (p = 0.003) and sleep quality (p = 0.048). Moreover, internal TL had detrimental effects on sleep quality (p = 0.04). We also observed a negative association between cognitive pre-sleep arousal and sleep efficiency (p = 0.004). and sleep onset latency (p = 0.03). Finally, no effect was found between mental skills and post-match sleep. Our results suggest that assessing perceived cognitive workload is essential when monitoring student-athletes. Moreover, higher sleep onset latency and lower sleep efficiency were associated with elevated levels of cognitive arousal supporting the idea that post-match sleep difficulties are due to cognitive arousal rather than physiological arousal.