A temperature-controlled mattress cover is associated with improved subjective sleep in elite male Australian rules football athletes: A 14-night parallel-group field study

Sleep is recognized as a critical factor in athletic recovery and performance. However, elite athletes often experience inadequate sleep, and research suggests that disturbances in thermoregulatory processes may be a contributing factor. This study aimed to investigate the effects of a temperature-controlled mattress cover on thermal comfort and sleep outcomes in professional athletes. Thirty-two elite male Australian Rules Football athletes (mean ± SD age: 23 ± 4 years) participated in a 14-night intervention using a temperature-controlled mattress cover (Eight Sleep Pod 3) (POD, n = 16) or their own mattress (CON, n = 16). The Brief-Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (B-PSQI) was used to analyze changes in sleep quality. Post-intervention, the POD group rated perceived thermal comfort, sleep impact, satisfaction, and recovery on a 1–10 Likert scale. Linear mixed models showed significant group ×time interaction favoring POD over CON for total sleep time (TST; +29 min, g = 1.41, p = 0.008), improvements in sleep quality (−1.0, g = -3.06, p < 0.001), and global score (−2.4, g = -2.43, p < 0.001) all taken from the B-PSQI. Perceived thermal comfort in the POD group did not change significantly from pre- to post-intervention (median [Q1-Q3]l 3.0 [2.0–4.0] and 4.0 [2.0–4.0], p > 0.05). The use of a temperature-controlled mattress cover was associated with improvements in subjective sleep measures in our cohort of athletes. These preliminary findings suggest that the device may be a promising noninvasive strategy for improving perceived sleep quality, pending confirmation in randomized studies with validated objective sleep measures.