Effects of sleep restriction on physical performance test among formative youth-high level padel players

Abstract

It has been shown that playing padel tournaments impairs the quantity and quality of players' sleep during competition weeks. This study checks the effects of sleep restriction on the physical performance of youth padel players. Voluntarily, 18 youth-elite padel players (age: 17.34 ± 1.36 years) participated in this randomized experimental trial. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was previously recorded to establish the experimental conditions, which were a normal sleep protocol versus a sleep restriction protocol (i.e., 50% of normal sleep time). Following both conditions, reaction time using a psychomotor performance test, upper body power using overhead and lateral medicine ball throws, and specific agility and speed using a previously validated padel-specific test were recorded. Results indicated that sleep restriction significantly impaired visuomotor reaction time (p < .001) and padel-specific agility and speed (p < .001) but did not cause significant changes in strength compared to normal sleep (p = 0.34). Induced sleep restriction impairs two complex tasks such as padel-specific speed and agility as well as visuomotor reaction time. In contrast, the simple strength task was not impaired by this condition. An important practical application derived from the study is that coaches should implement sleep facilitation strategies among players during tournaments.