Abstract
PurposeTo describe individual sleeping patterns and nocturnal cardiac autonomic activity of National team female soccer players during an international tournament.Materials and methodsTwenty elite female soccer players (aged 25.2±3.1 years) wore wrist actigraph units and heart rate (HR) monitors during night-sleep throughout 9 consecutive days (6 day-time training sessions [DT], 2 day-time matches [DM], and 1 evening-time match [EM]) of an international tournament. Training and match loads were monitored using the session-rating of perceived exertion (s-RPE) and wearable 18-Hz GPS (total distance covered [TD], training and match exposure time, and high-speed running [HSR]) to characterize training and match loads.ResultsIndividually, s-RPE, TD, exposure time, and HSR during training sessions ranged from 20 to 680 arbitrary units (AU), 892 to 5176 m, 20 to 76 min, and 80 to 1140 m, respectively. During matches, s-RPE, TD, exposure time, and HSR ranged from 149 to 876 AU, 2236 to 11210 m, 20 to 98 min, and 629 to 3213 m, respectively. Individually, players slept less than recommended (<7 hours) on several days of the tournament, especially after EM (n = 8; TST ranging between 6:00–6:54 h). Total sleep time coefficient of variation (CV) ranged between 3.1 and 18.7%. However, all players presented good sleep quality (i.e., sleep efficiency ≥75%; individual range between: 75–98%) on each day of the tournament. Most of the players presented small fluctuations in nocturnal cardiac autonomic activity (individual nocturnal heart rate variability [HRV] ranged from 3.91–5.37 ms and HRV CV ranged from 2.8–9.0%), while two players presented higher HRV CV (11.5 and 11.7%; respectively).ConclusionOverall, this study highlights the substantial individual variability in sleep and HRV measures, suggesting the adoption of an individual approach to monitor sleep, training and match loads and recovery, to better understand how players cope with highly demanding competitions.
Highlights
Elite soccer players are constantly exposed to multiple high physiological demands due to an elevated number of training sessions and matches played in National and international competitions, often with congested match calendars [1]
Players slept less than recommended (
This study highlights the substantial individual variability in sleep and HRV measures, suggesting the adoption of an individual approach to monitor sleep, training and match loads and recovery, to better understand how players cope with highly demanding competitions
Summary
Elite soccer players are constantly exposed to multiple high physiological demands due to an elevated number of training sessions and matches played in National and international competitions, often with congested match calendars [1]. There is no general consensus regarding the amount of sleep an elite athlete should obtain to maintain optimal performance [7], athletes who obtain less than 7 hours of sleep per night might have an increased likelihood of injury [4, 8]. Lastella et al [9] confirmed these results, finding that average sleep duration for elite athletes (including elite soccer players) was 6.8 hours, ranging from 5.5 hours to 8 hours. Based on these results, it seems that athletes are probably not getting sufficient sleep. It is important to analyze the achievement of good sleep indices (quality and efficiency) at the group level and individual level, but possible interventions should primarily take into account the individual sleep behaviors and its implications to each athlete’s performance
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