Sleep Indices and Cardiac Autonomic Activity Responses during an International Tournament in a Youth National Soccer Team

Pedro Figueiredo, Júlio Costa, Michele Lastella, João Morais and João Brito
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Pedro Figueiredo: Portugal Football School, Portuguese Football Federation, FPF, 1495-433 Cruz Quebrada, Portugal
Júlio Costa: Portugal Football School, Portuguese Football Federation, FPF, 1495-433 Cruz Quebrada, Portugal
Michele Lastella: Appleton Institute for Behavioural Science, Central Queensland University, Adelaide, QLD 5034, Australia
João Morais: Portugal Football School, Portuguese Football Federation, FPF, 1495-433 Cruz Quebrada, Portugal
João Brito: Portugal Football School, Portuguese Football Federation, FPF, 1495-433 Cruz Quebrada, Portugal

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 4, 1-11

Abstract: This study aimed to describe habitual sleep and nocturnal cardiac autonomic activity (CAA), and their relationship with training/match load in male youth soccer players during an international tournament. Eighteen elite male youth soccer players (aged 14.8 ± 0.3 years; mean ± SD) participated in the study. Sleep indices were measured using wrist actigraphy, and heart rate (HR) monitors were used to measure CAA during night-sleep throughout 5 consecutive days. Training and match loads were characterized using the session-rating of perceived exertion (s-RPE). During the five nights 8 to 17 players slept less than <8 h and only one to two players had a sleep efficiency <75%. Players’ sleep duration coefficient of variation (CV) ranged between 4 and 17%. Nocturnal heart rate variability (HRV) indices for the time-domain analyses ranged from 3.8 (95% confidence interval, 3.6; 4.0) to 4.1 ln[ms] (3.9; 4.3) and for the frequency-domain analyses ranged from 5.9 (5.6; 6.5) to 6.6 (6.3; 7.4). Time-domain HRV CV ranged from 3 to 10% and frequency-domain HRV ranged from 2 to 12%. A moderate within-subjects correlation was found between s-RPE and sleep duration [r = ?0.41 (?0.62; ?0.14); p = 0.003]. The present findings suggest that youth soccer players slept less than the recommended during the international tournament, and sleep duration was negatively associated with training/match load.

Keywords: accelerometer; adolescent; football; match; parasympathetic system; recovery; sleep duration; sleep quality; training load (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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