Cognitive fitness modulates gender differences in sleep and mental health among competitive athletes under chronic stress

Abstract

Objectives: Mental fitness is increasingly considered a key component of an athlete’s competitive arsenal. Active domains of mental fitness include cognitive fitness, sleep, and mental health; and these domains can differ between men and women athletes. Our study investigated the associations of cognitive fitness and gender to sleep and mental health, and the interaction between cognitive fitness and gender on sleep and mental health, in competitive athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: 82 athletes competing at levels from regional/state to international (49% women, M-age = 23.3 years) completed measures of self-control, intolerance of uncertainty, and impulsivity (together representing constructs of cognitive fitness), items about sleep (total sleep time, sleep latency, and mid-sleep time on free days) and a measure of mental health (depression, anxiety, and stress).Results: Women athletes reported lower self-control, higher intolerance of uncertainty, and higher positive urgency impulsivity compared with men athletes. Women reported sleeping later, but this gender difference disappeared after controlling for cognitive fitness. Women athletes—after controlling for cognitive fitness—reported higher depression, anxiety, and stress. Across genders, higher self-control was associated with lower depression, and lower intolerance of uncertainty was associated with lower anxiety. Higher sensation seeking was associated with lower depression and stress, and higher premeditation was associated with greater total sleep time and anxiety. Higher perseverance was associated with higher depression for men—but not women—athletes.Conclusion: Women athletes in our sample reported poorer cognitive fitness and mental health compared to men athletes. Most cognitive fitness factors protected competitive athletes under chronic stress, but some exposed them to poorer mental health. Future work should examine the sources of gender differences. Our findings suggest a need to develop tailored interventions aimed at improving athlete wellbeing, with a particular focus on women athletes.

Insomnia is more likely to persist than remit after a time of stress and uncertainty: a longitudinal cohort study examining trajectories and predictors of insomnia symptoms

“…Intolerance of uncertainty has been studied throughout the pandemic for its role in anxiety and mental health symptoms and is considered a transdiagnostic factor for psychopathology [ 66 ]. Only limited studies have investigated the role of intolerance of uncertainty in sleep disturbances [ 15 , 38 , 67 , 68 ]. Living throughout the pandemic has exposed individuals to an unprecedented time of uncertainty, and our study indicates that those who viewed uncertainty as a threat were at a heightened risk of persistent insomnia symptoms.…”

“…Across all time points, participants completed validated measures of insomnia symptoms, mental health, and sleep. At 3-month follow-up, participants were invited to complete an additional trait-level cognitive and psychological measure that has been found to be associated with longitudinal resilience to sleep disturbance [ 15 , 38 ].…”

“…Chi-square tests or ANOVA were then used to determine trait-level cognitive and psychological factors that were bivariate associated with insomnia trajectory classes, followed by multinomial logistic regression to test their unique associations. As past research indicates the association between chronotype and intolerance of uncertainty, chronotype was included as a covariate in the multinomial logistic regression [ 38 ].…”

“…a predisposition to experience sleep disturbance during or after a stressful event) are more likely to experience insomnia during a period of acute stress, with insomnia more likely to persist for these individuals if the stress becomes chronic [ 27 , 36 , 37 ]. Recently, other trait-level cognitive and psychological factors have been suggested to contribute to the development of sleep disturbances during periods of chronic stress [ 15 , 38 , 39 ]. For example, higher intolerance of uncertainty, lower self-control, and lower perseverance, as well as specific components of emotional regulation, predicted greater variability in self-reported sleep efficiency and/or time in bed over 3 months following the start of lockdown [ 15 ].…”