The effect of sleep on high speed running during a weekly micro-cycle in elite female soccer players.

1. The effect of sleep on high speed
running during a weekly micro-cycle in
elite female soccer players.
Wiseman, A.1
& Stebbings, G.K.1
1
Department of Exercise and Sport Science, Manchester Metropolitan University, Cheshire, UK.

2. Women’s Soccer – An Overview
• 30 million participants – set to rise to 49 million in 2019 (FIFA)
• 1,270, 481 players registered in Europe (UEFA)
• England (106,910)
• Scotland (10,913)
• Wales (5,626)
• Northern Ireland (1,088)
❌ No teams with full time status in Scotland

3. Challenges
• Travel
• Education
• Employment
• International Duty
• Late Night Training
Match Performance?

4. Why Sleep?
• “Sleep is an influential factor that affects the quality of training,
given its implications on the recovery process” (Marshall & Turner, 2016)
• To be restorative, sleep needs to be of suitable duration and
satisfactory quality. Insufficient sleep has the ability to decrease
physical performance. (Fullagar et al., 2015)
• Particularly for athletes who are often exposed to:
Early morning training (Caia et al., 2017; Sargent et al., 2014;)
Late night competition (Caia et al., 2017; Fullagar et al., 2016)
5,000,000 on Google “Sleep and Athletic Performance”

5. Why Sleep?
• Sleep extension beneficial to performance in basketball and tennis
(Mah et al.,2011; Schwartz and Simon, 2015)
• Sleep loss has demonstrated:
• A decrease speed & endurance in treadmill tests
(Oliver et al., 2009; Skein et al., 2011)
• Increase in HR, O2
consumption and blood lactate in a cycling test
(Mougin et al., 1990)
• Mixed results in strength / lifting performance (Simpson et al., 2017)
• Impaired serving accuracy in tennis (Reyner & Horne., 2013)
• Dart throwing accuracy following 4-5 hour restriction
(Edwards & Waterhouse, 2009)

6. Methods
• 4 elite female players (age 21 ± 2.7 years; height 169 ± 7.6 cm; mass 63.1 ± 6.54 kg)
• 1 x centre back
• 1 x winger
• 2 x centre midfielders
• 3 week in-season data collection period
• Each player issued with match day GPS Unit (Playertek, Ireland)
• Subjective data collected post activity via smartphone application
• HSR was defined as >5 m ･ s-1

7. Results
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
1 2 3
SleepQuality(AU)
Week
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
1 2 3
SleepQuantity(hrs)
Week
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1 2 3
HSR(m)
Week
A B
C
Comparison of weekly group mean values for sleep
quality (A), sleep quantity (B) and HSR (C).

8. Results
0.00
100.00
200.00
300.00
400.00
500.00
600.00
700.00
800.00
900.00
25 30 35 40 45 50
HSR(m)
Sleep Quanity (hrs)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
HSR(m)
Sleep Quality (AU)
The relationship between HSR and sleep quantity (A) and sleep quality (B)
A B
There was no significant relationship between sleep quantity and
HSR (r=-0.48, P= 0.88) or sleep quality and HSR (r= -0.216, P= 0.50)

9. Why?
• Positional Variability in HSR, opposition, tactical.
• No actual definition of sleep quality (Libman et al., 2016)
• Self assessment of sleep impairment is poor (Van Dongen et al., 2003)
• Overassessment of sleep quantity (Caia et al., 2018)
• Subjective Post match collection of data.
• Relative vs Absolute thresholds for HSR.
• Underestimation of absolute HSR by up to 30% (Clark et al., 2015)
• No standardised speed thresholds for women’s game.
• First study of its kind!

10. Recommendations
• Further longitudinal study required – season long?
• Larger sample size
• Data collection post sleep – morning wellness
• Player education on self assessment
• Objective measures to compliment subjective self reporting
• Positional considerations – winger vs centre back?
• Use of relative speed thresholds.

11. References
• Caia, J., Thornton, H., Kelly, V., Scott, T., Halson, S., Cupples, B. and Driller, M. (2017) 'Does self-
perceived sleep reflect sleep estimated via activity monitors in professional rugby league
athletes?'. Journal of Sports Sciences, 36(13) pp.1492-1496.
• Clarke, A., Pyne, D. and Anson, J. (2014) 'Physiologically based GPS speed zones for evaluating
running demands in women's rugby sevens'. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 18 p.e79.
• Edwards, B. and Waterhouse, J. (2009) 'Effects of One Night of Partial Sleep Deprivation upon
Diurnal Rhythms of Accuracy and Consistency in Throwing Darts'. Chronobiology International,
26(4) pp.756-768.
• Fullagar, H., Skorski, S., Duffield, R. and Meyer, T. (2016) 'The effect of an acute sleep hygiene
strategy following a late-night soccer match on recovery of players'. Chronobiology International,
33(5) pp.490-505.
• Fullagar, H., Skorski, S., Duffield, R., Hammes, D., Coutts, A. and Meyer, T. (2015) 'Sleep and
Athletic Performance: The Effects of Sleep Loss on Exercise Performance, and Physiological and
Cognitive Responses to Exercise'. Sports Medicine, 45(2) pp.161-186.
• Mah, C., Mah, K., Kezirian, E. and Dement, W. (2011) 'The Effects of Sleep Extension on the Athletic
Performance of Collegiate Basketball Players'. Sleep, 34(7) pp.943-950.

12. References
• Mougin, F., Simon-Rigaud, M.L., Davenne, D. ‘Effects of sleep disturbances on subsequent physical
performance’ Eur J Appl Physiol (1991) 63: 77
• Oliver, S., Costa, R., Laing, S., Bilzon, J. and Walsh, N. (2009) 'One night of sleep deprivation
decreases treadmill endurance performance'. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 107(2)
pp.155-161.
• Reyner, L. and Horne, J. (2013) 'Sleep restriction and serving accuracy in performance tennis
players, and effects of caffeine'. Physiology & Behavior, 120 pp.93-96.
• Sargent, C., Lastella, M., Halson, S. and Roach, G. (2014) 'The impact of training schedules on the
sleep and fatigue of elite athletes'. Chronobiology International, 31(10) pp.1160-1168.
• Schwartz, J. and Simon, R. (2015) 'Sleep extension improves serving accuracy: A study with college
varsity tennis players'. Physiology & Behavior, 151 pp.541-544.
• Simpson, N., Gibbs, E. and Matheson, G. (2016) 'Optimizing sleep to maximize performance:
implications and recommendations for elite athletes'. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science
in Sports, 27(3) pp.266-274.

13. References
• Skein, M., Duffield, R., Edge, J., Short, M. and Mundel, T. (2011) 'Intermittent-Sprint Performance
and Muscle Glycogen after 30 h of Sleep Deprivation'. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise,
43(7) pp.1301-1311.
• Van Dongen, H., Maislin, G., Mullington, J. and Dinges, D. (2003) 'The Cumulative Cost of
Additional Wakefulness: Dose-Response Effects on Neurobehavioral Functions and Sleep
Physiology From Chronic Sleep Restriction and Total Sleep Deprivation'. Sleep, 26(2) pp.117-126.

14. Thank You