Sleep-Wake Cycle of Elite Athletes Prior to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Objective: To analyze chronotype, duration and quality of sleep among elite athletes, to compare differences in sleep variables between sex, and to compare differences between athletes of individual and team sports. Method: The sample included 70 Brazilian elite athletes of both sex (male=37; female=33) with a mean age 23.0 ± 4.0 years old. To measure sleep-wake cycle, athletes wore an actigraph on the wrist for 10 days. Moreover, athletes answered the chronotype questionnaire of Horne and Ostberg. Results: The most athletes are intermediate-type (n=55, 78.6%), with a mean of 07h:18min of sleep per night. The athletes demonstrated higher sleep fragmentation (39.26 ± 23.66 minutes) and higher sleep latency (30.88 ± 16.19 minutes) during pre-competition training days. Additionally, the athletes of individual sports demonstrated more fragmentation (p<0.001) and less sleep efficiency (p<0.001) compared athletes of team sports. However, there was no significant difference in all sleep variables between the male and female sex. Conclusion: The overall elite athletes presented poor sleep quality during the training periods prior to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and individual athletes showed higher fragmentation and poorer sleep efficiency compared to team athletes.