Research summary · Women in sport
Season-long monitoring reveals substantial night-to-night sleep variation in women's soccer
Twenty-seven professional players wore a finger-based sleep monitor from January to November 2024. Researchers compared preseason and in-season sleep duration, efficiency, sleep-onset latency and estimated sleep stages using mixed-effects models.
- Publication year
- 2026
- First published online
- Publication type
- Longitudinal observational study
- Journal
- International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance
- Population / context
- Professional women's soccer · National Women's Soccer League
What the publication reports
In-season sleep averaged 7.8 hours, but individual night-to-night variability was substantial. Total sleep time did not significantly differ between phases. In-season REM estimates were about five minutes lower, with small reductions in sleep efficiency and sleep-onset latency; all phase effect sizes were small.
Limits and interpretation
A single professional cohort cannot represent every league or player. Consumer-device sleep stages are estimates, and seasonal associations do not establish causes or clinically meaningful impairment. The study describes sleep rather than testing a recovery intervention or demonstrating performance benefits.
Read the source
Consult the original record for the full author list, methods, references, funding and competing-interest disclosures.
Sleep Characteristics of Elite Female Soccer Players Competing in the National Women's Soccer League Across a Competitive Season
Original publication / indexed recordPMID: 42906892DOI: 10.1123/ijspp.2026-0094Reader discussion
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