Assessment of sleep health in collegiate athletes using the Athlete Sleep Screening Questionnaire

Abstract

Study Objectives: The objective of this study was to characterize sleep health in a large, diverse population of college athletes. The study utilized the Athletic Sleep Screening Questionnaire, a clinically validated questionnaire, designed to screen athletes for a clinically significant degree of poor sleep health, and to determine if they require intervention. Methods: College athletes from 4 different National College Athletic Association institutions were surveyed using the Athletic Sleep Screening Questionnaire. Descriptive information including sex, sport, and college year was also collected. The Athletic Sleep Screening Questionnaire was scored according to prior clinically validated methods to determine a sleep difficulty score, clinical sleep problem category (none, mild, moderate, or severe), and need for assessment by a physician due to poor sleep health. Results: A total of 1055 surveys were collected with a 95% response rate. Respondents were 36% female, 64% male, and included athletes competing in 15 different sports. Approximately 25% of participants were found to have a clinically meaningful problem with their sleep. Athletes entering their second or higher year of college were more likely to report worse sleep compared to those entering their first year (one-way analysis of variance, Kruskall-Wallis P < .001). Conclusions: A substantial portion of college athletes experience poor sleep health and would benefit from interventions aimed at improving sleep. The Athletic Sleep Screening Questionnaire appears to be a cost-and time-efficient way to evaluate sleep health in a large athletic population.

Sleep Quality and Sleep Behaviors in Varsity Athletes: A Pilot Study

“…Our findings are similar to those of Knufinke who showed an association between general sleep hygiene and general sleep quality in elite athletes (Knufinke et al, 2018). The proportion of university athletes in our study characterized by the ASSQ as having moderate to severe clinical sleep problems (37%) was slightly higher compared to other findings in varsity athletes, but nevertheless further validates the scope of clinical sleep issues in this population (Rabin et al, 2020).…”

Assessment of sleep disturbances with the athlete sleep screening questionnaire in Chinese athletes

“…Besides, Rabin et al. found that there was no difference in SDS between various sports among American collegiate athletes, 28 which is consistent with our result. This result may suggest that the ASSQ questionnaire can be used to assess the sleep disturbance of athletes in different sports with generalization.…”

“…Our findings show a slightly lower proportion of sleep disturbances than in existing studies 22 , 28 using the ASSQ as a measurement tool to monitor sleep in the athlete population. Biggins et al.…”

“…However, these studies did not report detailed information on such as the ethnicity of the participating athletes, their questionnaires were focused on the North American region and the findings may have been limited to that region's athlete population. 28 Huskey et al. used the ASSQ to survey 1033 collegiate athletes from four universities, three-ethnicity groups (whites, blacks, and other underrepresented ethnicities) within the Pacific Athletic Conference (PAC-12) on sleep problems, 19 and found that black athletes had worse sleep quality than the other two ethnicities.…”

“…This result may suggest that the ASSQ questionnaire can be used to assess the sleep disturbance of athletes in different sports with generalization. 28 …”