Sleep Quality and Athletic Performance among Athletes of University of Benin

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out sleep quality and athletic performance among athletes of the University of Benin. Four research questions were raised in this study and four corresponding hypotheses were formulated at 0.05 level of significant.  This study adopted correlation research design. The population of this study consisted of 244 student-athletes of the University of Benin, 145 male and 99 female.  The sample size of this study was made up of 122 University of Benin student-athletes. The simple random sampling technique of selection without replacement was used to select the sample. The Pittsburg sleep quality index questionnaire was the instrument that was used in this study. It is a 19 item self-report questionnaire, comprising of both fixed choice and open-ended questions, evaluating several aspects of sleep, which included, subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances. Component scores range from 0 (no difficulty) to 3 (severe difficulty) and their sum produces a global score ranging from 0-21, with higher values indicating poorer sleep quality. A PSQI score greater than 5 considered indicative of poorer sleep quality, based on its high sensitivity and specificity in identifying patients with sleep complaints. The data collected were analysed using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient to analysed hypotheses 1 to 4 at 0.05 alpha level. Findings revealed that there is a significant relationship between sleep latency and athletic performance, it was therefore concluded that, there is a significant relationship existing among sleep latency, duration efficiency and athletes’ performance in University of Benin. It was therefore recommended that sports managers should incorporate sleep management strategies into their training programs because it is a vital for athletes seeking to optimize both physical and cognitive performance

Keywords: Sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, athletes’ performance