Sleep profiles and their links to athlete satisfaction and burnout in elite sport

Sleep plays a pivotal role in athletes’ recovery and performance, yet research consistently shows that many athletes experience suboptimal sleep. Existing screening questionnaires typically rely on cut-off scores to classify athletes (e.g., good vs. poor sleepers), offering a limited and often simplistic view of sleep quality. By moving beyond these arbitrary thresholds, the present study adopts a person-centred approach to uncover distinct sleep profiles among elite athletes and explores how these profiles relate to well-being and ill-being. A total of 528 elite athletes (273 women) completed questionnaires assessing sleep, well-being, and ill-being. Sleep characteristics were measured using the Athens Insomnia Scale and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Well-being was assessed using the Athlete Satisfaction Questionnaire subdimension for individual performance satisfaction, while ill-being was measured using the Burnout Assessment Tool short form adapted to the sport context. Latent profile analysis was then conducted to identify distinct sleep profiles, and multilinear regression analyses examined their associations with well-being and ill-being outcomes. Six distinct sleep profiles emerged. Two profiles, characterized by mean sleep durations of less than seven hours per night, were associated with significantly higher levels of ill-being and lower levels of well-being compared to other profiles. These findings highlight the importance of sleep duration, specifically the 7 h-threshold, in athletes’ psychological health. Sleep profiling offers a more nuanced and practical approach than conventional cut-off-based classifications, supporting individualised monitoring and interventions in elite sport.