In: International Journal of Dream Research, 2 (2009), Nr. 2. pp. 70-72

Abstract

In the field of professional team sports, anecdotal reports about athletes who experience disturbed sleep in the night prior to away games due to changes in the sleep environment have been published. Ten semi-professional female volleyball players participated in the study. Subjective sleep quality was psychometrically recorded prior to a home game, an away game, and two training days. The night before the away game the players slept in a hotel. The players reported poor sleep quality and a higher frequency of nocturnal awakenings for the night prior to the away game in comparison to the nights prior to the home game and the training days. One might speculate that the poor sleep quality reported during nights spent away from home interferes with performance during sports games, and therefore contributes to the so-called home advantage. Future studies should correlate sleep parameters with performance to corroborate this assumption.