Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Elite Sports and Performance Enhancement
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1439858
This article is part of the Research Topic Optimizing Athletic Recovery: The Effects of Recovery Strategies and Sleep on Sports Performance View all articles

Relationship Between Sleep Quality and Quantity and Lower-Body Neuromuscular Performance Characteristics in Semi-Professional Male Basketball Players

Provisionally accepted
Damjana Cabarkapa Damjana Cabarkapa Dimitrije Cabarkapa Dimitrije Cabarkapa *Andrew C. Fry Andrew C. Fry
  • University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Sleep has been recognized as one of the most essential recovery methods necessary for achieving optimal performance. However, there is still a lack of scientific literature focused on examining its impact on one of the most prevalent skills in the game of basketball, the countermovement vertical jump (CVJ). Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between sleep quality and quantity, and lower-body neuromuscular performance characteristics within a cohort of semi-professional male basketball players. Twenty-eight athletes competing in a first-tier regional league in Serbia volunteered to participate in this investigation. Upon arrival at the gym, all athletes completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) self-rated questionnaire. Immediately after completion of the PSQI, each athlete stepped on a force plate system and performed three maximum-effort CVJs with no arm swing. The following force-time metrics were obtained for the analysis: eccentric and concentric absolute and relative mean and peak force and power, vertical jump height, and reactive strength index-modified. Pearson productmoment correlation coefficients were used to examine the strength of the linear relationships between sleep quality and quantity and lower-body neuromuscular performance characteristics (p<0.05). The results indicated that sleep quality appears to have a greater impact on the concentric than the eccentric phase of the CVJ (e.g., concentric mean force [r=-0.830; p<0.001], relative concentric peak force [r=-0.466; p=0.013, eccentric mean power [r= -0.162; p=0.409]), while no significant relationship was found between sleep quantity and lower-body neuromuscular performance (e.g., concentric peak force [r=-0.055; p=0.782], relative eccentric mean power [r=-0.301; p=0.107]). Overall, these findings offer valuable insights into the importance of good sleep hygiene (e.g., efficiency, duration) in an athletic population, and can help practitioners develop more effective training and recovery programs.

    Keywords: force, power, PSQI, Recovery, Fatigue, training, eccentric, concentric

    Received: 28 May 2024; Accepted: 31 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Cabarkapa, Cabarkapa and Fry. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Dimitrije Cabarkapa, University of Kansas, Lawrence, 66045, Kansas, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.