Chronotype and Athletic Performance
When talking about sleep quality in relation to athletic performance, chronotype and sleep duration are important factors that must be taken into account. Here is a study that investigated sleep quality and athlete performance according to the chronotype of elite athletes.
340 elite athletes
(male = 261, female = 79) were recruited for this study and all participants were screened for chronotype by the Korean version of the Korean-Evening Questionnaire (MEQ-K). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Wingate Anaerobic Test (WAnT) were measured after screening.
Results.
PSQI global score, PSQI sleep quality, PSQI sleep onset latency, PSQI sleep disturbance, and PSQI daytime dysfunction were significantly different between groups.
WAnT mean power (W), mean power (W / kg), peak power (W), and peak power (W / kg) were significantly different between groups.
Negative correlation coefficients were found between PSQI scores and WAnT mean power (W) (r = - 0.256, p < 0.01), mean power (W / kg) (r = - 0.270, p < 0.01), and peak power (W). (r = - 0.220, p <0.01), and peak power (W / kg) (r = - 0.248, p <0.01).
The conclusion is that people with a nocturnal chronotype and those who do not have a good quality of sleep have different exercise performance compared to those who do not have a good quality of sleep, and that people with a morning chronotype have better exercise performance than those with a night chronotype.
Lim, ST., Kim, DY., Kwon, HT. et al. Sleep quality and athletic performance according to chronotype. BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil 13, 2 (2021). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13102-020-00228-2
Summary
As a comparison of athletic performance with respect to chronotype and sleep quality, it was concluded that the closer to the morning, the better. Therefore, people with a nocturnal chronotype may need to make efforts to adjust their hours or force themselves to go to bed earlier.
However, the study did not take into account factors such as usual lifestyle, smoking habits, and training schedule, so it is too easy to jump to the conclusion that night owls = low performance.
However, if you are a night owl, it is possible to imagine that you may not be able to perform well in training sessions held in the morning because your activity peaks later in the day, so it may be interesting to schedule your training with this possibility in mind.
