Morgan_MSLT Napping Manuscript (Revised 2020).pdf (398.69 kB)
Download fileNapping in high-performance athletes: Sleepiness or sleepability?
journal contribution
posted on 2020-04-20, 09:56 authored by Luke Gupta, Kevin Morgan, C North, Sarah GilchristDaytime napping is a common practice in high-performance athletes, and is widely assumed to reflect sleepiness arising from sports-related sleep debt. The possibility that athlete naps may also be indicative of ‘sleepability’, a capacity to nap on demand that is only weakly related to homeostatic sleep pressure, has not previously been tested. The present study compared daytime sleep latencies in high-performance athletes and non-athlete controls using a single nap opportunity model. Elite (n = 10), and sub-elite (n = 10) athletes, and non-athlete controls (n = 10) attended the laboratory for a first adaption trial, and a subsequent experimental trial. Subjective sleepiness was assessed using the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) at 14:00, 14:30 and immediately prior to a 20-minute nap opportunity at 15:00. Sleep latencies were measured using polysomnography, and defined as the time from lights out to the first epoch of any stage of sleep (N1, N2, N3, REM). In unadjusted comparisons with non-athlete controls, elite athletes showed significantly shorter sleep latencies in both the adaptation (p < 0.05) and experimental trials (p < 0.05). These significant differences were maintained in models controlling for pre-trial KSS scores and pre-trial total sleep time (all p < 0.05). Sleep latency scores for sub-elite athletes showed similar trends, but were more labile. These results are consistent with a conclusion that, among elite athletes, napping behaviour can reflect sleepability and may not necessarily result from nocturnal sleep disruption and daytime sleepiness.
Funding
English Institute of Sport grant
History
School
- Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences
Published in
European Journal of Sport ScienceVolume
21Issue
3Pages
321-330Publisher
Taylor and FrancisVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Rights holder
© 2020 European College of Sport SciencePublisher statement
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in European Journal of Sport Science on 26 Mar 2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2020.1743765Acceptance date
2020-03-16Publication date
2020-03-26Copyright date
2021ISSN
1746-1391eISSN
1536-7290Publisher version
Language
- en