Abstract
Sleep behaviors although significantly relevant to exercise recovery are poorly characterized in Para-sport athletes. Therefore, the main aims of this study were to describe sleep quality and quantity of highly trained wheelchair rugby (WR) athletes during the competitive season, and to investigate whether impairment type or attending a training camp influenced sleep outcomes. Eighteen male WR athletes (mean ± SD; age: 30 ± 5 years) with cervical spinal cord injuries (n = 11) (CSCI) and without (n = 7) (NON-SCI) wore an activity monitor over a 16-day period to objectively quantify sleep parameters, while the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and nightly sleep diary entries were used as subjective means. A sub-sample of the athletes (n = 11) had their sleep monitored during a 3-night training camp to assess the impact of environmental change on sleep. Furthermore, as an additional exploratory measure core temperature was measured for a single night-time period using ingestible telemetry capsules. The athletes had total sleep times and sleep efficiency scores of 7.06 (1.30) h.min [median (interquartile range)] and 81 (9)%, respectively. Sleep onset latency and wake after sleep onset were 13 (24) min and 1.11 (0.45) h.min, respectively. No significant differences were found in objective sleep variables between the impairment groups despite the CSCI group being significantly more likely to report a poorer night's sleep (p = 0.04). Furthermore, attending the training camp caused a significant reduction in total sleep time for both groups [Δ38 ± 33 min; (95% CI: 18–60 min) p < 0.01]. This study highlights suboptimal sleep characteristics that are present in both CSCI and NON-SCI wheelchair athletes, as defined by the National Sleep Foundation. Although objective scores did not differ between groups, athletes with a CSCI rated their sleep worse. Furthermore, the disruption of sleep during training camp reflects an additional risk factor that is important to recognize for those working with wheelchair athletes.
Highlights
Recovery is an essential component of training adaptation (Kellmann et al, 2018)
This study evaluated sleep quality and quantity both objectively and subjectively in a highly trained cohort of male wheelchair rugby (WR) athletes including both athletes with a CSCI and NON-spinal cord injury (SCI)
The athletes were on the borderline between moderate to poor quality sleep reflected by suboptimal sleep characteristics (Hirshkowitz et al, 2015; Ohayon et al, 2017), and no differences in objective sleep were found between CSCI and NON-SCI groups, athletes with a CSCI subjectively reported worse sleep
Summary
Recovery is an essential component of training adaptation (Kellmann et al, 2018). The optimal balance between physical stress, resulting from training and competition, and periods of recovery is known to induce positive outcomes. Competition, long-haul travel, and training load have been identified as pertinent risk factors that could disrupt sleep in athletes (Gupta et al, 2017). It is acknowledged that periods of increased training load may have an influence on both sleep quality and quantity (Kölling et al, 2016; Killer et al, 2017). Events such as training camps have the potential to disturb sleep due to a combination of factors including early morning training, increased training volume and/or intensity, and challenges associated with sleeping away from home (i.e., shared rooms, single beds, etc.)
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