Effects of running training intensity on sleep quality and sleep duration in adolescent athletes

Sleep and exercise are two components that can affect each other physically and psychologically and are important for sportive performance. Sleep is considered a part of the recovery process and is affected by many factors such as the intensity, volume and time of exercise. In this study, it has been tried to explain how the sleep quality and duration of the athletes are affected by the training intensity. Five women (age: 15,8±1,30 year, height: 166,60±6,87cm, weight: 51,20±5,58kg) and 5 men (age: 14,2±0,83 year, height: 166,80±8,34cm, weight: 46,8±8,28kg) a total of 10 athletes participated to the study. During the six-week general preparation training period, the resting heart rate, heart rate during the exercise, sleep duration and sleep quality data of the athletes were collected with activity monitors 2 days a week. Intergroup comparisons of the obtained measurement results according to gender were examined using the Mann Whitney U Test, and the Wilcoxon Paired Groups Two-Sample Test to examine intragroup differences. The Spearman Correlation Coefficient was taken into account to examine the relationships between the variables. The results of the research show that the athletes continue their training at an intensity of approximately 70-80% of their HR reserves during the 6-week period. Considering the total duration, no significant difference was found between exercise heart rate, sleep quality and sleep duration of male and female athletes (p>0,05). In addition, there was no significant difference between the 1st and 6th week sleep quality and 1st and 6th week sleep duration of both female and male athletes (p>0,05). The interesting finding of the study emerged as a result of examining the relationships between exercise intensity, sleep quality and sleep duration. Findings show that as exercise intensity increases, sleep quality and sleep duration decreased significantly, and the sleep patterns of female athletes are more affected by exercise intensity (p<0,05). Based on the findings we have obtained, it is possible to say that considering the sleep quality and duration of especially female athletes when determining the exercise intensity will increase the quality of recovery and thus contribute positively to performance.