For athletes who train hard on a daily basis, proper rest and sleep conditioning are essential to improving performance.Previous studies have revealed risk factors such as lifestyle, stressors, and mental health for sleep disorders in general adults, but little study has been done on sleep disorders in athletes.

　Therefore, the research group of Professor Takeda et al. Conducted the first empirical study on the factors of sleep disorders, comprehensively covering lifestyle, athletic activities, athletic stressors, and mental health, based on data on student athletes.The analyzed data is 2016 students (male: 4%) who took classes for first and second graders at the physical education departments of five universities from April to November 11.

　As a result of the analysis, "bedtime" and "wake-up time" were found to be strongly associated with sleep disorders. It was found that the risk of sleep disorders was high before the time of day.In addition, those who have a part-time job during the midnight hours (after 0:1 pm) and those who use "mobile phones / smartphones after the lights are turned off" also have sleep disorders compared to those who do not. The risk was clearly higher.

　In addition, those who practice "morning practice (practice before 9 am)" more than 4 days a week, are dissatisfied with the content of club activities, and lose their motivation to continue the competition. Those with poor "mental health" also had a significantly higher risk of sleep disorders than those without it.

　Based on the results of this research, for the prevention and improvement of sleep disorders of athletes, adjustment of bedtime / wake-up time, adjustment of practice time zone avoiding morning, reduction of stressor who loses motivation for competition, improvement of maintenance of mental health, etc. The need for support measures in terms of activities became clear.

Paper information:[Sleep Medicine] Sleep disorder risk factors among student athletes