Table 6.
Prevalence of insomnia symptomatology and changes in sleep patterns post-competition
| Study | Sport | Competition (home/ away) | n | Sex | Mean age, y (SD) | Prevalence of insomnia symptoms (%) | Δ Sleep patterns and sleep quality | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BT | SE | SOL | TST | SQ | |||||||
| Actigraphy | |||||||||||
| Shearer et al. [56] | Rugby Union | Celtic League match (home) | 28 | M | 24.4 (2.9) | NR | ↑ | ↔ | ↔ | ↓ | NR |
| Fowler et al. [78] | Football | A-League (home) | 6 | M | 23.4 (NR) | NR | ↑ | ↔ | ↔ | ↓ | ↓ |
| Fowler et al. [41] | Football | Pre-season tour (away) | 16 | M | 27.0 (NR) | NR | NR | NR | NR | ↓ | ↓ |
| Fullagar et al. [58] | Football | Pre-FIFA World Cup (away) | 15 | M | 25.5 (4.9) | NR | ↑ | ↔ | ↔ | ↓ | ↔ |
| Richmond et al. [39] | ARF | AFL (home) | 10 | M | 23.0 (2.0) | NR | NR | ↔ | NR | ↓ | ↓↓ |
| Sleep diaries | |||||||||||
| Fullagar et al. [59] | Football | Bundesliga/Eredevisie (home and away) | 16 | M | 25.9 (7.5) | NR | ↑ | NR | ↑ | ↓ | ↓ |
| Polysomnography | |||||||||||
| Netzer et al. [61] | Cycling | German First Division | 13 | M | 23.9 (NR) | NR | NR | ↔ | ↔ | NR | NR |
| Questionnaire | |||||||||||
| Juliff et al. [38]a | Multi-sports | Olympic Games | 283 | M + F | 24.0 (5.0) | 53 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
AFL Australian Football League, ARF Australian Rules Football, BT bedtime, F female, M male, NR not reported, SD standard deviation, SE sleep efficiency, SOL sleep onset latency, SQ sleep quality (subjective rating), TST total sleep time, ↑ significant increase, ↔ no significant change, ↓ significant decrease (all p < 0.05); ↓↓ significant decrease (p < 0.01)
aAd-hoc question employed: “If you have a late training session or game do you find it hard to sleep after?”