Abstract
Given the need to alleviate sleep problems confronting athletes, the present experiment, conducted as much as possible in a naturalistic fashion that mimics daily life, seeks to examine whether a brief mindfulness induction immediately prior to sleep following night training can improve athletes’ sleep. A sample of university athletes (n = 80) was recruited and 63 of them were eligible to participate in this experiment. They were then randomly assigned into experimental group (n = 32) and control group (n = 31). Following night training and just prior to sleep, those in the experimental group received a self-administered brief 6-min mindfulness induction via a video clip, whereas the control group participants viewed a similar 6-min video devoid of mindfulness induction passively. Questionnaire-based measures of training intensity, pre-sleep arousal, state mindfulness, and sleep diary (i.e., level of rest, sleep duration, and overall sleep quality) were administered. Results showed that brief mindfulness induction reduced pre-sleep arousal, and improved level of rest and overall sleep quality, but not sleep duration. Pre-sleep arousal was also found to be a partial mediator in the relationship between the brief mindfulness induction and reported level of rest during sleep. These findings suggest that the brief mindfulness induction may be an effective approach for decreasing pre-sleep arousal and improving sleep quality after night training among athletes.
Highlights
Sleep – a phase where one is seemingly doing nothing – is not necessarily easy to accomplish
The indirect effects of the brief mindfulness induction on sleep duration (B = 0.14, SE = 0.16, 95%confidence interval (CI) [−0.05, 0.64]) and overall sleep quality (B = 0.16, SE = 0.16, 95%CI [−0.07, 0.58) were not significant. These results suggest that the pre-sleep arousal was a partial mediator in the relationship between the brief mindfulness induction and level of rest
Given that no prior training on mindfulness was provided to the participants, the overall results are encouraging, perhaps signaling that such a manipulation can be adopted by athletes, at least for the purpose of promoting sleep
Summary
Sleep – a phase where one is seemingly doing nothing – is not necessarily easy to accomplish. There are different modalities (e.g., cold-water immersion, psychological relaxation techniques, and sleep) for post-training recovery (Kellmann et al, 2018), considerable evidence has shown that sleep plays an active role in physiological and psychological processes such as removal of metabolic waste, prophylactic cellular maintenance, synaptic plasticity, emotional regulation, and memory functions (Fullagar et al, 2015). In this regard, sleep serves to facilitate both physiological and psychological restoration after training and competitions (Leeder et al, 2012), preparing the body for subsequent events (e.g., another bout of high-intensity training).
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