695 EP078 – Sleep in shared compared to individual rooms during training camps in elite youth soccer players

Background The growing interest in understanding how athletes sleep has boosted the number of scientific studies on the topic. In fact, athletes and coaches generally rank sleep as one of the most important recovery strategies. However, athletes often spend nights in unfamiliar environments during training camps that may disrupt sleep. Objective To analyse the impact of sleeping in shared compared to individual bedrooms on objective and subjective sleep, and on cardiac autonomic activity in elite youth football players during an official training camp. Design Retrospective cohort design. Participants Thirteen elite male youth soccer players (aged 17.9 ± 0.4 years) participated in the study. Interventions Heart rate (HR) monitors were used to examine cardiac autonomic activity during slow-wave sleep (SWS)-derived episodes throughout two training camps (training camp with players sleeping in individual bedrooms [TCIR] vs. training camp with players sleeping in shared bedrooms with separate beds [TCSR]). Sleep indices were examined using wrist actigraphy and a 7-point Likert scale. Main Outcome Measurements Sleep duration, sleep efficiency, sleep latency, subjective sleep quality, and SWS-derived cardiac autonomic activity. Results Players slept significantly longer during TCIR than TCSR (+ 1:28 [1:18–1:42] min, P < 0.001). Sleep efficiency was significantly higher during TCIR than TCSR (+ 12 [10–15]%; P < 0.001), while sleep latency was significantly shorter during TCIR than TCSR (-3 [-15 – -4] min; P < 0.001). Subjective sleep quality was significantly lower during TCIR than TCSR (-2 [-3 – -2] arbitrary units; P < 0.001). No significant differences were found for SWS-derived cardiac autonomic activity, neither for training or match workloads between training camps. Conclusions Overall, this study suggests that sleeping in an individual bedroom compared to a shared bedroom may improve objective and subjective sleep in elite male youth football players during training camps.