Abstract
Objectives
To determine the incidence of illness, and identify the relationship between sleep,
training load and illness in nationally competitive Australian football athletes.
Second, to assess multivariate effect between training load and/or sleep variables.
Design
Cohort study.
Methods
Retrospective analyses of prospectively collected cohort data were conducted on forty-four
male athletes over a 46-week season. The primary outcome was illness incidence, recorded
daily by medical doctors. Independent variables were acute, chronic and acute:chronic
ratios of: sleep quality, sleep quantity, internal training load and external training
load defined as: total running distance, high speed running distance and sprint distance.
Generalised estimating equations using Poisson (count) models were fit to examine
both univariate and multivariate associations between independent variables and illness
incidence.
Results
67 incidences of illness were recorded, with an incidence rate of 11 illnesses per
1000 running hours. Univariate analysis showed acute and chronic sleep hours and quality,
as well as acute sprint and total running distance to be significantly associated
with illness. Multivariate analysis identified that only acute sleep quantity was
significantly, negatively associated with illness incidence (OR 0.49, CI 0.25–0.94)
once all univariate significant variables were controlled for. There was no relationship
between external training load and illness when sleep metrics were controlled for.
Conclusions
In a cohort of Australian football athletes, whose load was well monitored, reduced
sleep quantity was associated with increased incidence of illness within the next
7 days. Monitoring sleep parameters may assist in identifying individuals at risk
of illness.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 19, 2018
Accepted:
June 11,
2018
Received in revised form:
May 4,
2018
Received:
January 29,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
