Pre-Race Sleep Management Strategy and Chronotype of Offshore Solo Sailors

Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate chronotype and the sleep management strategy adopted by sailors before the offshore solo sailing race “Mini Transat La Boulangère”. As secondary aim, we assessed whether adopting pre-race sleep management strategy influences performance at race.

Materials and Methods

Forty-two solo sailors completed questionnaires on sleep quality, sleepiness, chronotype and an ad hoc questionnaire on the pre-race sleep management strategy adopted. Arrival times, separately for each race’s leg, were provided by the race organization team.

Results

Solo sailors present mainly with a morning-type (40%) and intermediate-type (60%) chronotype, while none have an evening-type chronotype. Fifty-five percent of sailors adopted pre-race sleep management strategy. Sailors that adopted strategy have travelled more miles in offshore compared to sailors that did not adopt strategy (p<0.05). Significant differences emerged in rMEQ scores, with sailors that adopted strategy presenting lower score compared to sailors that did not adopt sleep strategy (p<0.05), as well as in chronotype distribution with morning-type sailors that are less likely to adopt pre-race sleep management strategy compared to intermediate type sailors (p<0.05). No differences emerged in final arrival times and in arrival time at leg1 and leg2. The most commonly adopted strategy (52% of sailors) consists of sleep extension, followed by the polyphasic sleep (26%), and sleep deprivation (22%) strategy. Sailors trained in polyphasic sleep have higher ESS than sailors trained in sleep deprivation (p<0.05).

Conclusion

Morning-type chronotype is overrepresented in this large cohort of solo sailors compared to the general population; moreover, chronotype seems to influence the adoption of sleep management strategy. A little over half of solo sailors participating in the Mini Transat trained in sleep management strategy before the race; however, neither the general adoption of pre-race sleep management strategy nor the adoption of a specific sleep strategy seems to significantly influence final arrival times.

Keywords:

• sleep
• solo sailing
• chronotype
• sport medicine
• training

Acknowledgments

We thank Matteo Plazzi (M.P.) for his help in interpretation of results. We also thank Cecilia Baroncini for editing the English text.

Disclosure

Professor Plazzi reports personal fees from and participated in advisory boards for UCB Pharma, Jazz pharmaceuticals and Bioprojet, outside the submitted work. The other authors have no other potential conflicts of interest to disclose.