Tracking sleep in ultramarathon male runners before, during, and after a mountain race: Actigraphic evidence of sleep restriction.

Authors

Natália Vilela Silva Daniel, Diogo Thimoteo da Cunha, Taisa Belli, Andrea Maculano Esteves

Published in

Sleep health. Aug 24, 2026. Epub Aug 24, 2026.

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze athletes' sleep before, during, and after a race using actigraphy.
We evaluated 15 male athletes (45.1 ± 10.5 years), who participated in Brazil 135 Ultramarathon (135 km: n = 4; 217 km: n = 11). Wristwatch actigraph measured sleep before (7 days), during, and after the race (7 days). Sleep data were available for 13 athletes.
Actigraphy indicated short sleep duration and suboptimal sleep parameters throughout the pre- and post-race periods, since most slept less than 8 hours, had low sleep efficiency, and high Wake After Sleep Onset. Mean total sleep time during the race was 96.67 ± 88.71 minutes and was not correlated with finish time (P = .81; r = 0.10; 95% CI -0.59 to 0.90). Except for one athlete, all reported symptoms attributed to insufficient sleep during the race, such as sleepiness (n = 5), loss of balance (n = 4), and hallucinations (n = 4). Athletes woke up later after the race compared with pre-race timepoints (P < .05). Nonsignificant trends showed more sleep the night before the race (432.2 minutes) compared with the prior week (409.8 minutes; mean difference 22.5 minutes; -74.3 to 29.3; P = .058), and greater total sleep time during the post-race week (461.4 minutes; 434-488) than on the night after (447.4 minutes; mean difference 14.0 minutes; -64.4 to 92.4; P = .058).
Ultramarathon runners exhibited short sleep duration, reduced sleep during competition, and later wake-up times afterward. Nonsignificant trends suggested increased sleep on pre-race night and greater total sleep time during the post-race week compared with the first post-race night, which may reflect delayed recovery of sleep following the event.

PMID:
42637627
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 25 Aug 2026.

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