Dados do Trabalho

Título

Sleep Quality and Insomnia in Adolescents Athletes Before Competitions

Introdução

Adolescents who participate in competitions experience high levels of stress, which can alter sleep quality, promotes insomnia and affect the performance.

Objetivo

We assessed the subjective sleep quality and insomnia of adolescents athletes during a competitive period.

Métodos

One hundred and nineteen Brazilian adolescents athletes (69 boys and 50 girls) of individual and team sports participated in this study (swimming, soccer and volleyball). The sleep quality was evaluated by Pittsburg Questionnaire and insomnia was assessed by Insomnia Severity Index. Both questionnaires were performed up to 60 minutes before national sports competitions began. Spearman Coefficient was employed to evaluate the relationship between sleep quality (SQ score) and insomnia. Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test was used to analyzed the sleep quality (bad and good sleepers) and Insomnia (with and without indicative). Was considerated as level of statistical significance p < 0.05.

Resultados

Sixty and fifty – nine adolescent athletes were considered bad and good sleepers (3.4  1.5 and 8.2  2.2, respectively; p < 0.001), 56 had presence of insomnia and 63 without insomnia (4.2  2 and 12.1  3.8, respectively; p < 0.001). Overall, we observed a significant relationship between sleep efficiency and duration (r = 0.538; p < 0.001), SQ score with sleep efficiency (r = 0.371; p < 0.001), duration (r = -0.664; p < 0.001) and sleep latency (r = 0.452; p < 0.001) and, sleep latency with duration (r = -0.252; p = 0.006).

Conclusões

Most of the adolescents athletes showed bad sleep quality and 47% had presence of insomnia before competition. To evaluate the sleep of adolescent athletes before competitions could be an interesting monitoring strategy for coaching staffs that may impact upon their performance.

Palavras-chave

Sleep quality, insomnia, athletes and adolescents.