nutrients Article The Sleep and Recovery Practices of Athletes Rónán Doherty 1,2,3,* , Sharon M. Madigan 2, Alan Nevill 4 , Giles Warrington 5,6 and Jason G. Ellis 3 1 Sports Lab North West, Letterkenny Institute of Technology, Port Road, Letterkenny, F92 FC93 Donegal, Ireland 2 Sport Ireland Institute, National Sport Campus, Abbotstown, D15 PNON Dublin, Ireland;
[email protected] 3 Northumbria Centre for Sleep Research, Northumbria University, Newcastle NE7 7XA, UK;
[email protected] 4 Faculty of Education, Health and Wellbeing, University of Wolverhampton, Walsall Campus, Walsall WV1 1LY, UK;
[email protected] 5 Health Research Institute, Schuman Building, University of Limerick, V94 T9PX Limerick, Ireland;
[email protected] 6 Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Limerick, V94 T9PX Limerick, Ireland * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: Background: Athletes maintain a balance between stress and recovery and adopt recovery modalities that manage fatigue and enhance recovery and performance. Optimal TST is subject to individual variance. However, 7–9 h sleep is recommended for adults, while elite athletes may require more quality sleep than non-athletes. Methods: A total of 338 (elite n = 115, 74 males and 41 females, aged 23.44 ± 4.91 years; and sub-elite n = 223, 129 males and 94 females aged 25.71 ± 6.27) athletes were recruited from a variety of team and individual sports to complete a battery of previously validated and reliable widely used questionnaires assessing sleep, recovery and nutritional practices. Results: Poor sleep was reported by both the elite and sub-elite athlete groups (i.e., global PSQI score ≥5—elite 64% [n = 74]; sub-elite 65% [n = 146]) and there was a significant difference in sport-specific recovery practices (3.22 ± 0.90 vs.