• Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.80-84
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• 2014

Introduction: Sleep has numerous important physiological and cognitive functions that may be particularly important to elite athletes. Sleep deprivation can have significant effects on athletic performance. However, there are few published data related to the amount of sleep obtained by elite athletes. We investigated sleep patterns of Korean women golfers using sleep-related questionnaires. Methods: For this study, 98 Korean university women golfers and 46 age- and sex-matched controls were recruited. All subjects were asked to complete the self-administered sleep questionnaire consisting of questions about habitual sleep patterns (sleep onset time, sleep latency, awakening time in the morning, day time napping time), exercise habits, Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Insomnia Severity Index (ISS), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), validation of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Results: The sleep onset time was significantly earlier (pm 23 : $05{\pm}00$ : 52 and 00 : $14{\pm}00$ : 51 ; t = 5.287, p < 0.001), the waking time was later (am 07 : $21{\pm}01$ : 09 and 6 : $35{\pm}00$ : 32; t = -2.715, p = 0.008), the weekday total sleep time was greater ($417.77{\pm}78.18$ minute and $351.52{\pm}77.83$ minute ; t = 4.406, p = 0.001), and the daytime nap time was greater ($77.73{\pm}41.28$ minute and $20.22{\pm}33.03$ minute ; t = 7.623, p < 0.001) in the golf athletes compared to the controls. The PSQI scores were significantly lower, but estimated sleep latency and ESS, ISS, PSS, and BAI scores were not different among the two groups. Conclusion: This study suggests that Korean university women golfers have good sleep patterns resulting in no difference in sleep-related stress compared to age- and sex-matched control students.