On the Road to Camarón: The Sleep of an Ultra-Endurance Athlete Cycling 10,000 km in 24 Days

Mathieu Nédélec, Maxime Chauvineau and Gaël Guilhem
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Mathieu Nédélec: Laboratory Sport, Expertise and Performance (EA 7370), French Institute of Sport (INSEP), 11 Avenue du Tremblay, 75012 Paris, France
Maxime Chauvineau: Laboratory Sport, Expertise and Performance (EA 7370), French Institute of Sport (INSEP), 11 Avenue du Tremblay, 75012 Paris, France
Gaël Guilhem: Laboratory Sport, Expertise and Performance (EA 7370), French Institute of Sport (INSEP), 11 Avenue du Tremblay, 75012 Paris, France

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 8, 1-7

Abstract: The impact of sleep on performance is fundamental for ultra-endurance athletes, but studies on this issue are rare. The current investigation examined the sleep and performance of a cyclist engaged in a simulated 10,000 km tour. The sleep behavior of the athlete (age, 57; height, 1.85 m; mass, 81 kg) before, during (i.e., 23 nights), and after the tour was monitored using a reduced-montage dry-electroencephalographic (EEG) device. The daily performance (i.e., number of kms) was recorded throughout the race. The cyclist set a new world record, completing 10,358 km in 24 days with a mean daily distance of ≈432 km in approximately 16 h, i.e., an average speed of ≈27 km/h. Sleep duration throughout the tour (5:13 ± 0:30) was reduced compared to the baseline sleep duration (7:00 ± 1:00), with a very large difference (ES = 2.3). The proportion of N3 during the tour (46 ± 7%) was compared to the measured N3 proportion during the baseline (27 ± 5%) and was found to be systematically outside the intra-individual variability (mean ± 1 SD), with a very large difference (ES = 3.1). This ultra-endurance event had a major influence on sleep-duration reduction and a notable modification in sleep architecture. The increase in slow-wave sleep during the race may be linked to the role of slow-wave sleep in physiological recovery.

Keywords: recovery; performance; stress; master athlete (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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