Deconstructing athletes’sleep:A systematic review of the influence of age,sex,athletic expertise,sport type,and season on sleep characteristics

Purpose:This systematic review aimed to describe objective sleep parameters for athletes under different conditions and address potential sleep issues in this specific population.Methods:PubMed and Scopus were searched from inception to April 2019.Included studies measured sleep only via objective evaluation tools such as polysomnography or actigraphy.The modified version of the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used for the quality assessment of the studies.Results:Eighty-one studies were included,of which 56 were classified as medium quality,5 studies as low quality,and 20 studies as high quality.A total of 1830 athletes were monitored over 18,958 nights.Average values for sleep-related parameters were calculated for all athletes according to sex,age,athletic expertise level,training season,and type of sport.Athletes slept on average 7.2±1.1 h/night(mean±SD),with 86.3%±6.8%sleep efficiency(SE).In all datasets,the athletes’mean total sleep time was<8 h.SE was low for young athletes(80.3%±8.8%).Reduced SE was attributed to high wake after sleep onset rather than sleep onset latency.During heavy training periods,sleep duration and SE were on average 36 min and 0.8%less compared to pre-season and 42 min and 3.0%less compared to in-season training periods,respectively.Conclusion:Athletes’sleep duration was found to be short with low SE,in comparison to the general consensus for non-athlete healthy adults.Notable sleep issues were revealed in young athletes.Sleep quality and architecture tend to change across different training periods.

Polysomnographic findings of obstructive sleep apnea in children with adenotonsillar hypertrophy

Serous Background: There are few studies assessing the clinical manifestations of sleep breathing disorders and polysomnograms in several pediatric age ranges. This studied aimed to assess polysomnography results such as apnea-hypopnea index, mean oxygen saturation and sleep efficiency in children presenting with airway obstruction and adenotonsillar hypertrophy complaints, and to establish whether they are correlated to age and sex. Methods: A retrospective study with children of both sexes, aged between 2 and 12 years, with clinically suspected obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and adenotonsillar hypertrophy, who underwent polysomnography before surgery. The children were allocated to groups according to their age range (Group I: 2 to 4 years old;Group II: 5 to 8 years old;Group III: 9 to 12 years old). Apnea-hypopnea index, mean oxygen saturation and sleep efficiency data were compared between sexes and among the three groups (Student’s t test, p < 0.05). Results: Of 167 children studied by polysomnography, 76.6% were of school age and 67% were male. For all studied age ranges, there was no difference between sexes for the investigated parameters (body mass index, apnea-hypopnea index, mean oxygen saturation and sleep efficiency). As regards mean oxygen saturation, Group I showed the lowest value (89.9 ± 6.2). Apnea-hypopnea indexes were higher in male children aged between 2 and 4 years (9.9 ± 5.2). Group III had the lowest sleep efficiency (84.1 ± 9.2). Conclusion: There was a predilection of more severe cases of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome for children younger than four years, shown by higher apnea-hypopnea index per hour and lower mean oxygen saturation in this age range.