Sleeping but struggling: a qualitative study of the lived experiences of sleep in student-athletes

A growing body of evidence indicates that student-athletes experience suboptimal sleep health across multiple dimensions. However, limited research has explored sleep from the student-athlete's own perspective. This study examined the lived experience of sleep health in a cohort of student-athletes known to demonstrate suboptimal sleep outcomes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 British rugby union student-athletes. During interviews, participants were presented with personalised sleep data from a prior actigraphy assessment, which served as a visual elicitation tool to facilitate reflection and discussion. Interview transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Nine lower-order themes were identified and organised into three higher-order themes: irregular patterns, reflecting structural and social demands that constrained control over consistent sleep; managing sleep behaviours, encompassing individual behaviours that often conflicted with established sleep recommendations; and connection to health, describing bidirectional relationships between sleep, wellbeing, and performance, whereby inadequate sleep contributed to negative physical, cognitive, and emotional outcomes. Overall, student-athletes identified multiple upstream influences that adversely affected their sleep health, with wide-ranging consequences for wellbeing. These findings contextualise previous quantitative evidence of poor sleep in student‑athletes and may inform the subsequent development of targeted sleep interventions grounded in behaviour change theory.