Self-reported, Sleep Behaviors And Barriers Of Adolescent Athletes

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Many adolescent athletes fail to meet sleep duration recommendations, however little is known about self-reported barriers preventing adequate sleep. PURPOSE: To investigate current and ideal sleep behaviors, as well as barriers to sleep in a group of adolescent athletes. METHODS: Adolescent athletes (n = 258, 16.3 ± 1.4 y; 196 male, 62 female) from 8 sports completed a standardized electronic survey regarding sleep behaviors and perceived barriers to sleep. The survey assessed current and ideal sleep onset, offset, and duration. Athletes were presented a list of common pre-bed activities and asked if they ever engaged in each activity in the hour prior to bed. Similarly, a list of potential barriers to falling asleep once in bed were presented. Frequency of all barriers (nights per week) was assessed. Comparisons between ideal and current behaviors were made using ANOVA and t-tests as appropriate. Barriers were ranked to identify which were most responsible for impacting sleep behaviors. Normally and non-normally distributed data are presented as mean ± SD, and mean with associated 95% confidence interval [95% CI], respectively. RESULTS: Significant differences were found between ideal (9:24 ± 1:18 (h:min)) and school night (8:14 ± 1:43), ideal and non-school night (9:56 ± 1:57), and school and non-school night sleep durations (p<0.05). The most frequent pre-bed activities were: engaging in social media (5.6 nights per week, 95% CI [5.3,5.9]), communication with others using technology (4.9 [4.6,5.2]), and socializing (4.9 [4.6,5.2]). School work (3.0 [2.7,3.2]) was the most cited barrier to getting into bed at the desired time, followed by engaging with social media (2.6 [2.2,2.9]) and communicating using technology (2.1 [1.8,2.4]). Once in bed, worrying about school work (1.5 [1.2,1.7]) and worrying about sport (1.4 [1.1,1.7]) were the two most cited barriers to falling asleep. CONCLUSION: Discrepancies exist between actual and desired sleep duration with athletes preferring to obtain more sleep on school nights. School work as well as the use of technology are top barriers preventing adolescent athletes from achieving their ideal bedtime. Focus should be placed on behavior change strategies, including time management, to overcome these known barriers to sleep.