The Role of Professional Sports on Quality of Sleep and Life in Veterans and Disabled Professional Cycling Team Athletes

Due to physical and mobility limitations, veterans and disabled people have poorer quality of life and sleep. The purpose of this study was to survey the quality of sleep and life in veterans and disabled professional cycling team athletes participating in the national championship competition.

Fifty-two subjects participated in this descriptive-analytical study, including twenty-six veterans and disabled professional cyclists who had participated in a national championship competition held in Shiraz and 26 volunteer non-athlete veterans and disabled persons selected by convenient sampling. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and SF-12 questionnaire were used to collect data and Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman correlation coefficient were used for data analysis.

There was a significant difference in the total score of quality of life and its scales between the two groups (P<0.05); so that, the cyclist group showed a better status. Also, there was a significant difference between the two groups in total score of sleep quality (P = 0.001) and the constructs of sleep latency (P=0.01), sleep duration (P=0.008), sleep disturbances (P=0.007) and use of sleeping medications (P=0.001); so that, the cyclist group had a lower score in the mentioned items and had a better status. There was no significant correlation between the total score of quality of life and total score of sleep quality in the cyclist (r=-0.14, P=0.49) or non-athlete (r=-0.06, P=0.74) groups.

The present study showed that the veteran and disabled professional cyclists that participated in the national championship had good sleep quality and quality of life compared to the non-athlete disabled persons.