Perfil del patrón de sueño en deportistas universitarios

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to describe and analyze the sleep patterns of male and female university athletes practicing soccer, basketball, volleyball, athletics, swimming, and taekwondo. A total of 114 athletes (56 men, 58 women) participated, who used a wGT3X-BT accelerometer during 7 days while sleeping. All measurements were taken at the beginning of the athletes preparation period. Interactions between gender and sport were found for sleep efficiency (p = 0.006), time in awakening (p = 0.016), time in bed (p = 0.048) and sleep time (p = 0.006). The latency, as well as the number and duration of awakenings, did not differ between gender and sport. Regardless of the sport, men showed a greater number (p = 0.046) and duration (p = 0.002) of awakenings than women. Sleep efficiency and sleep duration values were lower than desired. It is recommended to monitor the sleep patterns of university athletes, since academic obligations could affect their sleep habits.