Does the sleep-wake rhythm play a role in professional football?

Professional athletes often exhibit disturbed sleep-wake rhythms, characterized by both irregular training days and erratic weekly rhythms, as well as special schedules for demanding competitions. This is also true for male and female soccer players, who typically train on weekdays and usually participate in matches at the weekends. The extent to which individual sleep-wake patterns, and power napping in particular, influence training schedules was the goal of a survey submitted to 56 men's teams in the first through third divisions and 12 women's teams in the premier league. A total of 700 coaches and trainers were asked to respond to the survey. Thirty-five completed questionnaires could be evaluated. The results show that the topic of sleep is important in professional soccer; in 50% of cases, it is even taken into account in training planning. In addition, more than 50% stated that power napping before matches is part of the training program and that a lower level of concentration is observed in the morning and at lunchtime. In contrast, the results show that there is a lack of knowledge about the individual chronotype of players and the individual activity-rest cycle. Joint research by sports coaches and physicians could increase knowledge on the importance of restful sleep and a balanced sleep-wake cycle in professional soccer players, as well as providing the high number of clubs that show a deficit in these areas with prevention tools, for example, to make better use of the performance reserve of sleep and establish individualized rest-activity management.