DAILY SELF-REPORTED SLEEP DURATION PATTERNS AMONG MALE AND FEMALE COLLEGIATE ATHLETES

Abstract Introduction Student-athletes’ time demands include scholastic, athletic, and social events that may influence sleep duration; and the association between sleep duration, athletic performance, and injury risk are inconclusive. Further, limited research investigates long-term habitual sleep patterns in collegiate student-athletes. We aimed to describe the feasibility of monitoring long-term self-reported sleep duration, within-person sleep duration patterns, and test sex differences across a semester in a collegiate student-athlete cohort. Methods We monitored daily self-reported sleep in a prospective cohort study using ecologic momentary assessment. Each day, a smartphone application prompted student-athletes to record total sleep hours obtained in the previous 24 hours(h). We provide descriptive statistics for response frequency, and within-person sleep, percentage of days below recommended (7-9) hours, and coefficient of variation (CV) [(standard deviation/mean)*100]. We tested sex differences using chi-squared tests, and within-person median hours of sleep on weekdays verses weekends with paired t tests (p<.05). Results Sixty-three student-athletes (male: 57.1%) on eight teams responded. Out of a possible 54 responses, response frequency was <25% for 27.0% of student-athletes, 25-50% for 19.1% of student-athletes, 50-75% for 20.6% of student-athletes, and ≥75% for 33.3% of student-athletes. Among those responding ≥50% of days (n=34), median self-reported sleep ranged 6.5-9h per 24h and the percent of days below recommended hours of sleep ranged from 0-53.6%. The CV ranged from 6.2-31.8% overall, and from 7.0-24.1% among athletes with response rate ≥50%. There was a significant association between sex and quartile of response rate (χ23=15.91, p<.001); the highest percent of males (41.7%) had <25% response rate, whereas 55.6% of females had ≥75% response rate. There was no association between sex and reported sleep above or below recommended hours (χ22=2.25, p=0.32). There was no difference between median within-person weekday and weekend hours of sleep (t51=0.75, p=0.46). Conclusion Student-athletes generally self-reported obtaining the recommended total sleep; however, participation was variable as response frequency was ≥75% for one-third of student-athletes and females responded more often than males. This suggests future studies should validate the reliability of self-report with objective data in this population to obtain complete data to appropriately assess associations between habitual sleep patterns and injury risk, performance, and recovery outcomes. Support (If Any) Pilot funding through the Penn Injury Science Center (CDC R49 CE 003083) supported this study.