Enhancing Sleep in NCAA Division I Athletes: A Study of Sleep Extension Feasibility

Background: Sleep extension has been shown to improve varied aspects of athletic performance in collegiate athletes. Such studies have been conducted in small cohorts in controlled settings utilizing obsolete monitoring technology. The feasibility of sleep extension has not been evaluated in a broader cohort of collegiate athletes with modern monitoring technology. Hypothesis: Sleep extension may not be feasible in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athletes. Study Design: Crossover study. Level of Evidence: Level 3. Methods: Baseline sleep data were collected from NCAA Division I athletes (women’s soccer, men’s soccer, baseball, and football) during a 2-week period. Subjects were then instructed to extend their total sleep time to 10 hours per night for 2 weeks. All sleep baseline and extension data were collected in the offseason, remote from school examinations. WHOOP bands recorded all sleep metrics. Data were analyzed using paired-samples t tests and Wilcoxon signed rank tests. Results: A total of 50 subjects (14 female, 36 male) participated. The study compared total sleep time (hours) and sleep consistency (percent) - the stability of sleep-wake schedule over time, between baseline and sleep extension phases. Sample size varied for both metrics, ranging from 46 to 49 participants, respectively. There was a statistically significant increase in sleep consistency during the sleep extension phase (baseline, 60.09 ± 12.6%; extension, 64.42 ± 12.4%; P = 0.02). However, total sleep time showed no significant difference between the 2 phases (baseline, 7.63 ± 0.88 hours; extension, 7.51 ± 0.88 hours; P = 0.27). Conclusion: Extension efforts improved sleep consistency but did not significantly impact total sleep time suggesting that a sleep extension intervention can enhance sleep consistency in NCAA Division I athletes but does not significantly impact total sleep time. Sleep extension may be challenging for collegiate athletes given the time-intensive demands of both academics and sports. While sleep extension may be feasible in professional sports, it does not appear to be so in the college setting. Clinical Relevance: While the sleep extension intervention improved sleep consistency, it did not improve total sleep time, questioning the feasibility of sleep extension in collegiate sports.