Sleep of Athletes

This chapter aims to examine the sleep behavior of athletes in various sports more closely. Sleep behavior has been predominantly assessed in sports practice through actigraphy. The methodological peculiarities of actigraphy (e.g., under-/overestimation of wake times) are therefore discussed separately. Subsequently, the terms sleepiness, fatigue, and exhaustibility are to be considered in the context of sleep medicine and sports practice. The duration and quality of sleep seem to be influenced by the demands of individual sports—especially the short sleep times in training-intensive individual sports are surprising. Various training factors interfere with sleep behavior, from which some concrete recommendations for sports practice can be derived.