Counting Blessings Promotes an Athlete’s Sleep Quality Before an Upcoming Competition A Single-Case Study

Abstract

\n Background\n\nPromotion of sleep quality without medication is a critical issue, which may directly or indirectly influence sports performance. This study adopted electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate gratitude intervention for improving elite athletes’ sleep quality before the National Games.\nCase presentation:\n\nWe recruited a 20-year-old elite female Taekwondo athlete as a participant. Before the National Games, the athlete wore a micro EEG device for five days to collect baseline data and then counted her blessings as a gratitude intervention for the subsequent five days. The sleep EEG analysis included the power ratio and the polynomial regression trends in the 0.5-4 Hz band for N3 sleep and in the 0.5-4 Hz and 8–13 Hz bands for all-night sleep. Sleep quality was improved after counting blessing both subjectively and objectively. The polynomial regression curves for the 10 days of recording showed an upward tendency of power in the 0.5-4 Hz band for N3 and a downward tendency in the 8–13 Hz band.\nConclusion\n\nThis study describes a useful wearable EEG device for evaluating sleep during the competition preparation period. In addition, the brief gratitude intervention can be applied in practice to enhance sleep quality for elite athletes during periods of high tension.