Training Schedule and Sleep in Adolescent Swimmers

Abstract

Purpose: Insufficient sleep duration may affect athletic performance and health. Inconsistent sleep pattern also has negative health effects, but studies on athletes’ intraindividual sleep variability are scarce. The aim of this research was to compare total sleep time (TST) and variability (TST-variability), wakening after sleep onset, and sleep efficiency, during nights preceding early morning practices with other nights, and to investigate sleep characteristics of nights following a day with early morning only, evening only, or both a morning and an evening session in adolescent swimmers. Methods: Wrist-worn accelerometers were used to measure 1 week of sleep in 108 swimmers (mean age 16.1 [2.6] y) in Iceland. Adjusted regression analyses and linear mixed models were used to explore associations of training schedules with TST, TST-variability, wakening after sleep onset, and sleep efficiency. Results: Mean TST was 6:32 (h:min) (±39 min) and TST-variability was 63 minutes (±25 min). TST decreased and TST-variability increased with more early morning practices. TST preceding early training was 5:36 and 5:06 in <16- and ≥16-year-olds, respectively, shorter than on nights preceding later or no morning training (P < .001). Conclusion: Swimmers have extremely short TST preceding early morning sessions and increased TST-variability with more early morning sessions.

Sleep Quality and Duration in European Adolescents (The AdolesHealth Study): A Cross-Sectional, Quantitative Study

“…Unlike previous reports on adolescent sleep duration, where less amount of sleep was found with increasing age [51,63,64], the age of the participants in the present study was not a determining factor that influences the duration. This is despite the fact that we found a non-statistically significant decrease in the duration of sleep, as the age of the subjects of the populations of Seville and Reykjavik increases.…”

“…In relation to sleep quality, more adolescents from Seville and Tartu (51%) reported poor perceived sleep quality (PSQI ≥ 5) than did those from Reykjavik (41%). Our data agrees with similar studies in the participating cities [64,[74][75][76][77], as well as those reported in a longitudinal study that examined trends in the difficulty of sleeping in adolescents over 12 years [78].…”

Physical Function Characteristics of Swimmers in Pre-Competition Training

“…In the blood of male swimmers, the hemoglobin level in the blood reached 170.61 grams per liter 3 weeks before the competition. 8 The minimum measurement two weeks before the race is 157.26 g/l. Measured one week before exercise was 164.13 g/L.…”

Contemporary Variables that Impact Sleep and Development in Female Adolescent Swimmers and Gymnasts

“…Additionally, intensive training load as indicated by Dumortier et al is a variable that negatively impacts both TST and athletic performance in adolescent female elite gymnasts [ 44 ]. As Gudmundsdottir reports, TST is also a variable for swimmers with early morning training sessions, finding that TST is decreased the night before early morning tapering and the shortest sleep duration followed days of no training [ 23 ]. Taken together, this review posits that sleep should be considered in the altered physiology observed in pre-pubertal adolescent female athletes in gymnastics and swimming as it parallels the features of the triad (Fig.…”

“…This review examines contemporary variables leading to sleep debt in adolescent female athletes (FA) including blue light from Fig. 1 Contemporary independent variable impacting sleep and the potential dependent physiological variables [7,11,15,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Sleep is broadly indicated in this diagram to include the complex physiological mechanisms that occur as a result of sleep debt.…”