Sleep of young athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Introduction: In high-performance athletes, sleep is an important tool in physical and mental recovery due to routine training and competitions. However, given the COVID-19 pandemic, the lives of the entire population were changed. The routine of high-performance athletes, especially team sports, was directly impacted by the measures of social isolation, and understanding the extent of damage to athletes' sleep in this scenario is desirable. Objective: To evaluate the sleep pattern of young athletes in team sports during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods: Young athletes of both sexes and federated in their respective team sports in the State of São Paulo and Paraná were evaluated. They were evaluated under two conditions during social isolation (2020) and during the return to presential activities (2021). An anamnesis was carried out and questionnaires that assess sleep (Mini-Sleep, Epworth Sleepiness Scale and Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire) were applied online through Google Forms. Paired t-test was used to compare the both moments. The study was approved by the UNIFESP Research Ethics Committee via Plataforma Brazil. Results: The sample consisted of 34 young people (24 boys and 10 girls), 15.79 ± 1.38 years, 62.17 ± 8.68 kg, 1.67 ± 0.08 m and BMI 22.12 ± 2.16 kg/m2. Among the sports played, 50% practice futsal, 23.5% handball, 17.6% soccer and 8.9% softball. They maintained a routine of 4.02 ± 1.29 days of training/week before the pandemic began, 4.02 ± 1.64 days/week during isolation, and 3.42 ± 1.09 days/week after return. Regarding the sleep of young athletes, they had good sleep quality and normal sleepiness. The sleep quality (26.20 ± 8.16 vs 25.27 ± 6.79) and daytime sleepiness (8.47 ± 4.88 vs 7.81 ± 3.53) showed no differences between the isolation period and the return, respectively. They had higher Social Jet lag during isolation (2.51 ± 1.31 hours) when compared to the return period (2.05 ± 1.13 hours, p = 0.04), in addition to shorter sleep duration during the week in the isolation period when compared to the return period (7.95 ± 1.55 vs 8.56 ± 1.63, p = 0.01). Conclusion: The young athletes kept their training routines at home during social isolation, and with the return to the presential training and collective activities, they decreased the Social Jet lag and increased the hours of sleep during the week, suggesting that the pandemic negatively influenced their sleep.