An objective description of routine sleep habits in elite youth football players from the Middle-East

Background and study objectives: Adequate sleep is essential to support preparation and recovery processes for training and competition in athletes. A limited number of studies have examined whether adolescents from the Middle-East meet the minimum age-specific recommendations ranging from 8 to 9 h of night sleep based on objective measurements. This study aimed to provide an objective description of routine sleep habits in elite youth football players from the Middle-East. Methods: Using wrist-worn actigraphy, we examined objective measures of sleep over a 14-day surveillance period from fifty-nine, male, Middle-Eastern elite youth football players (age range: 12.1 to 16 years). Results: The observed median sleep duration was approximately 5.5 to 6 h during weekdays and 6.5 to 7.5 h over weekend days. Sleep intermissions resulting in two or more periods of sleep accounted for 8% and 17% of the data during weekdays and weekends, respectively. Conclusions: For the first time, we reported an objective quantification of sleep measures indicating that elite youth athletes from the Middle-East do not meet the age-specific sleep recommendations. Integration of sleep tracking into the routine training monitoring process can be valuable to inform decisions relevant to the adoption of potential multidisciplinary interventions to address sleep insufficiency and disorders in youth athletes. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study found that elite youth football players from the Middle-East do not meet the age-specific sleep recommendations, with an average weekday sleep duration of approximately 5.5 to 6 hours and 6.5 to 7.5 hours on weekends, with sleep intermissions observed. Integration of sleep tracking into routine training monitoring could inform decisions regarding potential interventions to address sleep insufficiency and disorders in youth athletes.