Sleep quality in spanish boxers after the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Sleep is one of the most important behaviours for human cognition. Good quality sleep is also necessary for athletes for recovery, training and performance enhancement. However, the periods of quarantine and isolation caused by COVID-19 led to changes in people's routines, including sleep routines. The aim of this study is to analyse possible differences in the dimensions of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSIQ) according to gender, age, level of experience and frequency of practice among boxers from the province of Caceres (Extremadura, Spain) in the pandemic. The sample consisted of 61 adults who responded to four socio-demo-graphic questions in addition to the questions associated with the PSIQ. For the statistical analysis, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to establish the assumption of normality. Subsequently, non-parametric tests were chosen as this assumption was not met. Con-sequently, the Mann-Whitney U test was used to examine gender and the Kruskal-Wallis test was used to examine age, level of expe-rience and frequency of practice. Finally, no significant differences were found between the sociodemographic variables and the di-mensions of the questionnaire. Furthermore, there is little literature on sleep quality in athletes during the pandemic. Therefore, it is essential to develop studies focused on the quality of sleep in athletes, comparing the current situation with the research carried out prior to the pandemic.