Research carried out by a PhD candidate at Hartpury University has explored the quality and quantity of sleep among its student athletes, with the hope of informing better sleep practices and improving wellbeing and performance.
Sandy Wilson led a previous study of 157 Hartpury student athletes, finding that almost half (49%) were poor sleepers with a high prevalence of daytime sleepiness and poor behaviours around sleep, known as ‘sleep hygiene’.
The recommended sleep duration for most young adults is 7-9 hours per night, but this survey found an average sleep duration just over 7 hours with one-in-four people under 7 hours. This finding is despite the tendency for people to overestimate their own sleep, with an ongoing study using actigraphy monitors to explore this further.
Student athletes face a unique set of circumstances that make good sleep even more important but challenging to achieve. In line with previous sport research and with athletes more widely at all levels, early morning training was identified as a key issue.
The more days per week thats student athletes were training early in the morning, the progressively worse their sleep became. This issue is particularly important for young adults that have a biological sleep regulation that typically favours later bedtimes and wake times.
Speaking about the results, Sandy said: “Sleep is a key pillar of health that everyone should value and protect, and student athletes face many unique challenges when training or preparing to compete. While sleep is a biological process, social and environmental contexts can have a large impact on how we sleep.
“Whether fitting studies around training or competition, or feeling anxious ahead of an exam, sleep can take a real hit. This ultimately can impact sport performance, academic achievement, and general wellbeing.
“It’s clear from the research that there’s a need to address sleep in this population. We’re working towards creating a behavioural intervention to provide student athletes both the structure and personal resources needed to improve sleep and subsequent performance both on and off the sports field.”
Hartpury University and Hartpury College is home to top-level coaches, sport and exercise scientists, nutritionists, conditioners, medics, and athletes across 10 Sports Academy programmes. The Gloucestershire institution has produced over 250 international sports stars over the past 15 years via its dual training programme, which allows student athletes to train and play at an elite level whilst gaining a top-quality degree. Graduates are highly successful, with 97% progressing into employment, purposeful activity or further study (Graduate Outcomes 2022).
It’s also a hub for research that’s having a real-world impact or can be put into practice on campus and elsewhere. Research projects like this can have a great impact on training plans, too.
Marc Richards, Assistant Director of Elite Sport at Hartpury said: We’re constantly looking at ways in which we can improve our Hartpury Sports Academies to enhance the experiences of our student athletes. The unique high-performing sport environment and demographic of students at Hartpury provides the perfect place for our university students to produce industry-impacting research.”
Hartpury is home to some of the UK’s most advanced sports technology including an anti-gravity treadmill, altitude chamber, high-tech 3D tracking cameras and high-resolution digital mirrors, assisting with research projects across various disciplines.
