Relationship between measures of sleep quantity and quality with performance variables in collegiate female soccer players.

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the relationship between sleep quantity and quality and soccer-specific performance variables with female soccer players. Data for eight NCAA Division I women’s soccer players (18-23 yrs) for sleep the night prior to matches meeting inclusion criteria were included for the analyses. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) determined whether the vectors of the means in groups of variables were significant and paired t-tests used for subsequent analysis. Significance was set at ρ < 0.05. Mean sleep quantity and quality for the “best” (575.0 ± 38.4 minutes, 91.9 ± 2.6% of time in bed spent sleeping) and “worst” (416 ± 57.6 minutes, 76.2 ± 12.1% of time in bed spent sleeping) nights were significantly different. The MANOVAs were not significantly different for the physiological and physical variables for quantity and quality of sleep. While no differences in performance variables were observed after “best” and “worst” quantity sleep matches, differences existed between “best” and “worst” quality of sleep. Percent time spent exercising above 85% of the maximal heart rate (HRmax) and high metabolic load index (HML) were significantly lower after the “best” quality night of sleep (30.2 ± 13.5 vs. 47.9 ± 24.3%, 11.8 ± 3.6 vs. 16.3 ± 6.0 yds/min, respectively). Additionally, the number of decelerations (< -2 m/s²) was higher after the “best” quality night (69.7 ± 28.1 vs. 50.6 ± 25.9). Sleep quality the night prior to competition may be a more influential variable on performance variables than sleep quantity.