0231 Sleep Behaviors of Female Collegiate Athletes

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Sleep is critical to cognitive and physiologic function. It is likely being a female collegiate student athlete places unique demands upon sleep behavior. Therefore, we aimed to study the sleep behavior of female collegiate athletes versus a female collegiate control group. Methods Full time female students from the University of Colorado Boulder (Altitude = 1,624 m) were recruited from NCAA Division I athletic teams: Cross Country (XC, n=10), Lacrosse (LAX, n =17), Soccer (SOC, n=15), Golf (GOLF, n=6), Tennis (TENN, n=9). 31 female full-time students were recruited as Controls (CONT). Sleep was monitored with wrist actigraphy (Spectrum Actiwatch, Phillips) for a minimum of one week. Subjects were instructed to wear actigraphs at all times except during competition. Outcome variables included nightly sleep duration, total 24h sleep duration, sleep efficiency, sleep midpoint, social jet lag (SJL) and nap duration/frequency. Results On weekdays, XC, LAX and SOC had greater nightly sleep durations ~8.5h compared to TENN, GOLF and CONT (p<0.05). Relative to other groups, XC had the earliest sleep midpoint (3:34 AM ± 1:20 vs. 3:53 AM ± 1:15) while SOC and LAX had the lowest sleep efficiency (~87.3 ± 3.2% vs. ~89.6 ± 3.4%) (all p<0.05). There was significant SJL among CONT, LAX and SOC (difference of sleep midpoints on weekdays and weekends; p<0.05). While nightly sleep duration varied significantly between different groups, there were no significant differences in total daily sleep duration when naps are included. A greater percentage of CONT (87 %) napped compared to athletes (64.2 %) (p<0.05); napping duration/frequency of naps per week were not different between groups. Conclusion Variations in sleep behavior exists between collegiate student athletes based upon varsity sport with some sports being similar to controls and others being significantly different. Additional research is needed to determine the significance of these findings to academic and athletic performance. Support PAC-12 Student-Athlete Health and Wellbeing Initiative, Grant #1554240