Archers get enough sleep

The summary today

The four studies that measure it disagree, and the difference seems to follow the setting and the instrument more than archery itself. The first, in 2019, finds fifteen Indian archers aged 14 to 18, living and training at a sports institute, down to 6 hours 27 minutes of sleep on school days, against 8 hours 39 at weekends: for their age, well short of the recommended minimum. Six archers from the Turkish national team, tracked with an actigraph over the four days of a European Grand Prix, sleep between 465 and 529 minutes a night, within the seven to nine hours usually recommended, report in their sleep diaries falling asleep within 6-9 minutes and stay stable from the first night to the last, although in the morning they rate themselves very sleepy, 8-9 on a 10-point scale. Seventeen Turkish national-level archers, within a sample of 115 athletes from five sports, report 7.58 hours of sleep and on the sleep quality item score highest of the five, but the measure is a questionnaire on the previous night. Fifteen university kyudo archers, measured with a sensor under the mattress over seven nights, sleep only 5.7 hours on average, with a Pittsburgh questionnaire score of 6.0, right on the threshold that indicates disturbed sleep. On one side are Turkish national-level athletes, six of them followed at a tournament with their day organised by the team; on the other are students, Indian teenagers whose alarm goes off at half past five and Japanese undergraduates, who may sleep little for reasons that have nothing to do with archery. Today it cannot be said that archers in general get enough sleep.

Also phrased as: "how many hours do archers sleep"; "archers' sleep"; "archers sleep too little"; "sleep during archery competitions"

Evidence

• 2019
  Against Archers Published later

  15 male Indian archers aged 14 to 18, of at least national level, living and training at an army sports institute: before an intervention on their evening habits, on a school sleep habits questionnaire they sleep 6 hours 27 minutes on weekdays (confidence interval 6:01 to 6:53) and 8 hours 39 at weekends, waking at 5:28 on school days. The authors describe this as well short of the recommended minimum for their age. It is a self-reported measure, not an instrumented one, and after a year of intervention weekday sleep rises by about ten minutes, not significantly.

  Sleep Pattern and Sports Performance of Adolescent Archers: A Pre–Post-intervention Pilot Study · Chandra Sekara Guru, Karuna Datta, Anup Krishnan, Anuj Kumar, Uma Mahajan, Sunil Jhajharia, Manoj Kumar, Amit Kumar, Narendra Yadav, Amar Singh

• 2024
  For Archers Published later

  6 archers from the Turkish national team, three Olympic, world or European medallists and three international-level archers, tracked with an actigraph over the four competition days of a European Grand Prix: total sleep of 465 ± 38, 529 ± 38, 529 ± 61 and 482 ± 29 minutes a night, with no differences between days (the first night tends to be shorter, p = 0.07), sleep latency of 6-9 minutes and time awake after sleep onset of 2-5 minutes, these two from sleep diaries. Morning sleepiness is high, 8-9 out of 10 on the Karolinska scale, which the authors read as a possible sign of unrefreshing sleep.

  Energy intake, hydration status, and sleep of world-class male archers during competition · Ozcan Esen, Ian Walshe, Stuart Goodall

• 2024
  For Archers Published later

  17 Turkish national-level archers, within a study of 115 athletes from five sports: reported sleep of 7.58 ± 1.06 hours, a total Richards-Campbell questionnaire score of 66.70 ± 25.22 and, on the sleep quality item, 82.94 ± 17.94, the highest of the five sports (only canoeing is significantly lower, p = 0.02). In the whole sample one athlete in four (29 of 115) reports poor sleep. The questionnaire covers only the previous night; regional journal.

  The Relationship Between Dietary Nutrients and Sleep in Elite Athletes: a Pilot Study · Melike Nur Eroğlu, Beril Köse, Büşra Sabur Öztürk

• 2024
  Against Kyudo archers Published later

  15 university kyudo archers, sleep measured with a sensor under the mattress over seven nights: total sleep of 344.2 ± 72.6 minutes a night, that is 5.7 hours, latency of 15.4 minutes, efficiency of 91.2%, and a Pittsburgh questionnaire score of 6.0 ± 3.3, on the threshold that indicates disturbed sleep. Those with national placings report subjectively worse sleep (1.9 against 1.0, p = 0.02), but the sensor does not tell them apart from the others (340.4 against 347.5 minutes, p = 0.86).

  Relationship between mood and sleep status with performance accuracy in university kyudo athletes · Masaki Yoshioka, Misato Takada, Makinori Matsuo, Seiji Maeda, Keisei Kosaki

Status history

1. 2019 Contradicted The first study to measure archers' sleep finds the opposite: fifteen Indian archers aged 14 to 18, of national level, living at a sports institute, sleep 6 hours 27 minutes on school days, waking at half past five, and catch up at weekends with 8 hours 39. For their age this is well short of the recommended minimum. It is a single small study, using a questionnaire, on teenagers who go to school: the evidence there is goes against the claim, but it is thin.
2. 2024 Contested The first data in favour arrive, and the picture splits. Six world-class archers at a tournament sleep between 465 and 529 minutes a night, stable from the first night to the last, and seventeen Turkish national-level archers report 7.58 hours and score highest of five sports on the sleep quality item. Fifteen university kyudo archers, measured over seven nights with a sensor under the mattress, sleep 5.7 hours, with a quality score at the threshold that indicates disturbed sleep, joining the Indian teenagers of 2019. Studies of archers pointing in opposite directions, with different instruments and settings: contested.

Related

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