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What an archer eats shows up in the quality of their sleep

1 study

ForContextAgainst202420262024, for, n = 1152024, context, n = 115
Each circle is a study: its position gives the year, its row whether it is for, against or context, its size how many participants it measured. Light circles are studies on other populations or without archers.

There is nothing on archers alone. The only data come from 115 Turkish national-level athletes from five sports, 17 of them archers, analysed together: the 86 who sleep well according to a questionnaire take in more energy (2,171 against 1,746 kcal a day), more protein (1.63 against 1.27 g per kilo) and more tryptophan (1,357 against 1,033 mg) than the 29 who sleep poorly. Nothing else separates the two groups: not caffeine, not the glycaemic index of the last meal, not carbohydrate, fat, magnesium or water, and not even energy relative to body weight (p = 0.11). Poor sleepers, moreover, do not sleep fewer hours and do not train more. The study is labelled a pilot, the diet comes from a single 24-hour recall and the design is cross-sectional, so it cannot say whether people sleep better because they eat more or eat more because they sleep better. For archers the link remains transferred from a mixed sample in which fewer than one athlete in six shoots.

Also phrased as: "diet and sleep in archers"; "what to eat to sleep well before competing"; "diet and sleep quality in athletes"; "tryptophan and sleep"

In practice

Archers are told to watch what they eat the evening before a competition so they sleep better, avoiding sugar and coffee at night.

Evidence

  • 2024
    For Other sport Published later

    115 Turkish national-level athletes from five sports (swimming, canoeing, archery with 17 athletes, volleyball, taekwondo), average age 19.7, analysed together. On the Richards-Campbell questionnaire (good sleep from 50 points up) 86 sleep well and 29 poorly; the former take in more energy, 2,171 against 1,746 kcal (p = 0.04), more protein, 1.63 against 1.27 g per kilo (p = 0.04), and more tryptophan, 1,357 against 1,033 mg (p = 0.02). Relative to body weight, energy does not differ (p = 0.11). Regional journal, pilot study.

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

  • 2024
    Context Other sport Published later

    The same sample, and what does not separate good from poor sleepers: caffeine 92.9 against 76.4 mg (p = 0.11); glycaemic index of the last meal 63.4 against 62.5 (p = 0.81); carbohydrate 2.99 against 2.66 g per kilo (p = 0.35); fat 1.48 against 1.22 g per kilo (p = 0.06); magnesium 379.8 against 284.2 mg (p = 0.68); water 3,240 against 4,403 ml (p = 0.23). The difference narrows to energy, protein and tryptophan.

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

  • 2024
    Context Other sport Published later

    Those who report poor sleep quality do not sleep fewer hours: 7.4 against 7.5 hours (p = 0.79). Nor do they differ in age (19.4 against 19.8 years, p = 0.59), height, weight, body mass index, body fat (18.0% against 16.4%, p = 0.17) or weekly training hours (20.7 against 20.1, p = 0.65): perceived quality is not explained by sleep duration or by training load.

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

Status history

  1. 2024 Transferred The first data come from 115 Turkish athletes from five sports, 17 of them archers, analysed together with no separate comparison for archery. Good sleepers take in more energy, more protein and more tryptophan than poor sleepers, while caffeine, the glycaemic index of the last meal, carbohydrate, fat, magnesium and water separate nothing. It is a pilot study with a single dietary recall and no causal direction; there is nothing on archers alone: transferred.

Related

Related articles

Research lines

Cite
APA

Campagna, M. (2026). What an archer eats shows up in the quality of their sleep (Version 1). In Evidence Registry. Retrieved 16 October 2026, from https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/diet-and-sleep-quality-in-archers

BibTeX
@misc{campagna2026_dietaqualitasonno,
  author = {Campagna, Matteo},
  title = {What an archer eats shows up in the quality of their sleep},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Evidence Registry, matteocampagna.com},
  url = {https://matteocampagna.com/en/registry/health/diet-and-sleep-quality-in-archers},
  note = {Version 1; accessed 2026-10-16}
}

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