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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Sleep Sci 2024; 17(02): e176-e184
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1777778
Original Article

Sink or Swim? Sleep Patterns in Highly Trained Adolescent Swimmers during the In-Season Phase of Training

Claudia Ashby
1   School of Health, University of Waikato, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand
,
Matthew W. Driller
2   Sport, Performance, and Nutrition Research Group, School of Allied Health, Human Services, and Sport, Melbourne, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia
,
Haresh Suppiah 
2   Sport, Performance, and Nutrition Research Group, School of Allied Health, Human Services, and Sport, Melbourne, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia
,
Shannon O'Donnell
1   School of Health, University of Waikato, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand
› Author Affiliations
Funding The author(s) received no financial support for the research.
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Abstract

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate the sleeping patterns of highly-trained adolescent swimmers. Further objectives were to compare subjective and objective measures of sleep and to evaluate the relationship between electronic device use and sleep in this cohort.

Methods Fifteen national-level swimmers (age: 16.4 ± 1.0 years) wore wrist actigraphs while completing sleep diaries over a two-week training period. Types of nights were classified as early morning training (≤7am - EARLY), day training (>7am - DAY), and no training (REST). Information on electronic device use before bed and other sleep behaviors was collected via questionnaires.

Results Total sleep time (TST) was significantly (p < 0.05) shorter on nights preceding EARLY (5:53 ± 1:06 hour:min) compared with nights preceding DAY (7:40 ± 1:12 hour:min) and REST (7:59 ± 1:19 hour:min). Participants overestimated subjective TST by ∼54 minutes when compared with objectively measured TST (p < 0.05).

Discussion Adolescent athletes obtained a greater amount of sleep prior to later training the next day or before rest days, when compared with early morning swim training the next day. Adolescents also overestimated their sleep duration by ∼1 hour per night. There were no significant relationships between electronic device use at night and measured sleep indices.

Keywords

actigraphy - sports - athletes - sleep


Publication History

Article published online:
09 April 2024

© 2024. Brazilian Sleep Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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