The use of individualised, media-based sleep hygiene education for professional female footballers

Gooderick, J., Clash, R., Fisher, H., Maxwell, N. and Hayes, M. (2025) The use of individualised, media-based sleep hygiene education for professional female footballers. European Journal of Sport Science, 25 (2). pp. 1-13. ISSN 1536-7290

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Text (This is the peer reviewed version of the article, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsc.12247. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.)
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Abstract

Sleep hygiene can be defined as practicing habits that facilitate sleep; poor sleep hygiene is common among elite athletes, and improving this can be one way to enhance sleep indices. Given the large inter-individual variability of sleep, there is a need for further investigation into individualised sleep hygiene for elite female athletes, with consideration for the practical application of the method. Using a self-controlled time series design with repeated measures, n = 16 professional female footballers completed a 9-week study during mid-season. Monitoring of sleep (actigraphy, self-report) occurred at week 1, 4, 7 and 9-a control period occurred at week 2 and 3, and a subsequent intervention period occurred at weeks 5 and 6. Based on baseline sleep monitoring, media-based messages were designed with the purpose of giving a singular sleep hygiene message; all participants received these individualised messages daily across the 2-week intervention period at a standardised time of 8.00 p.m., with the intention of them actioning the sleep hygiene point. One-way analysis of variance with repeated measures was conducted to assess the differences between control period, intervention period and follow-up for each measured variable. Significant differences were observed post-intervention for sleep efficiency (p < 0.001) and sleep latency (p < 0.001), whereas the athlete sleep behaviour questionnaire score significantly improved in the follow-up period (week 9) post intervention (p = 0.039). This is the first study to present this novel method of individualised sleep hygiene education for elite female athletes and is also the first study to demonstrate the use of sleep hygiene interventions to improve sleep factors for female athletes' mid-season. This demonstrates a promising, time-efficient approach to sleep hygiene education, with a potentially wide scope of application, as well as demonstrating there is indeed potential for elite female athletes to gain sleep improvements mid-season.

Publication Type: Articles
Additional Information: © 2025 The Author(s).
Uncontrolled Keywords: humans, health, self-report, team sport, health education - methods, athletes, actigraphy, recovery, adult, sleep - physiology, sleep hygiene, female, soccer - physiology, relaxation, young adult
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure > GV201 Physical education and training
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure > GV557 Sports
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation Leisure > GV557 Sports > GV711 Coaching
Q Science > QP Physiology
Divisions: Academic Areas > Institute of Sport
Research Entities > Centre for Health and Allied Sport and Exercise Science Research (CHASER)
SWORD Depositor: Publications Router Jisc
Depositing User: Publications Router Jisc
Date Deposited: 05 Feb 2025 11:46
Last Modified: 05 Feb 2025 11:46
URI: https://eprints.chi.ac.uk/id/eprint/7931

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