Study finds 52.2 percent: Pak athletes suffering from moderate sleep disorders

KARACHI: Pakistan’s 52.2 percent athletes are suffering from moderate sleep disorders while 70.25 percent have mild daytime dysfunction, which affect their performance.

A recent research study’s findings showed that athletes have disturbed sleep quality and interventions should be done to improve sleep quality so that the performance of the athletes can be improved.

The study titled ‘Sleep Disturbance and its Associated Risk Factors among Pakistani Athletes’ was conducted by lecturers M Shah and Azmat Ali and Assistant Professor Dr Farooq Hussain from the Department of Physical Education & Sports of Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan.

The objective of the study was to examine sleep disturbance and its effects on the performance of athletes in Pakistan. Out of 230 athletes, 88 (42.9 percent) said they slept for six to seven hours and 47 (22.9 percent) said they slept for five to six hours. The study found that 84 athletes were bad sleepers.

Increased daytime instability was the most commonly reported result of sleep disruption in the study (70.25 percent) and daytime dysfunction was recognised as the most frequently described result of insufficient sleep. Also, individual sport athletes reported poorer sleep than team sport athletes.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, adults need 7 to 9 hours of sleep for optimum output and wellbeing, whereas teenagers need more sleep, ideally between 8 and 10 hours.

Athletes who get less than the recommended amount of sleep a day (less than 8 hours) have been found to have poor athletic results. Athletes with insufficient sleep quality and quantity can experience a drop in physical performance (such as sudden strength and endurance), a decrease in cognitive performance (such as attention and memory), and an increased risk of illness or injury.

Athletes who are sleep deprived may have diminished brain function, which may influence judgment and/or decision-making at any point during their athletic career.