Sleep Varies According to Game Venue but Not Season Period in Female Basketball Players: A Team-Based Observational Study

Sleep is an essential part of the recovery process that may be jeopardized during specific contexts across the season. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the impact of key contextual factors—game venue and season period—on sleep in semi-professional, female basketball players. Sleep was monitored in players using wrist-worn activity monitors across the entire regular season. For game venue analyses, nights were categorized as a control, before and after home games, as well as before and after away games. For season period analyses, nights were arranged into evenly distributed four-week blocks as early, middle, and late periods of the regular season. Players slept significantly less on nights before away games (p < 0.05) than on other nights, which was attributed to significantly earlier wake times (p < 0.05). While sleep onset and offset times were significantly later during the middle and later season periods than the early season period (p < 0.05), sleep duration and quality remained consistent across periods. These results suggest players could experience disrupted sleep prior to away games, which has potential implications for performance in upcoming games. Coaches and performance staff may need to consider implementing suitable strategies to safeguard the sleep of their players in these scenarios.