Abstract
Sleep plays a significant role in maintaining our physical, emotional, and cognitive health across the lifespan (Illingworth, Interface Focus, 2020, 10, 1-8). When optimal sleep outcomes are disrupted these same processes can become subject to deleterious effects. One such cognitive process concerns reported higher frequencies of disruptive spontaneous thoughts (Cardenas-Egúsquiza & Bernsten, Consciousness and Cognition, 2022, 105, 103401). With growing evidence that student-athletes exhibit a high prevalence of undesirable sleep characteristics (Wilson et al. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 2024, 34, 1-11), there appears to be a growing need in this unique population to explore potential negative psychological factors associated with mental health related issues and determine whether they become exacerbated by poor levels of sleep quality. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore student-athlete differences in self-reported global sleep quality and their spontaneous levels of intrusive visual imagery. After institutional ethics approval, 126 undergraduate student-athletes (Mage = 19.2 years, SDage = 2.07, males = 52%, females = 48%) completed a measure of intrusive visual imagery (McCarthy-Jones et al., Consciousness and Cognition, 2012, 21, 1375-1381), and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Buysse et al. Psychiatry Research, 1989, 28, 193-221). Using the PSQI global subscale, three sleep quality cut-off groupings were created to distinguish disturbed (>8), poor (>5), and good (≤5) quality sleepers. A One-way ANOVA was calculated to ascertain differences between sleep quality groupings and recorded levels of intrusive visual imagery. Test of homogeneity of variances between groups was violated, therefore Welch’s F-ratio was used. There was a significant effect of sleep quality grouping on levels of intrusive visual imagery scores (P = .012, r = .28). There was a significant linear trend (P = .001, r = .28), indicating that as the PSQI global grouping scores increased, intrusive visual imagery scores increased also. Planned contrasts demonstrated student-athletes recording PSQI global scores of 5 or less experienced significantly less intrusive visual imagery than student-athletes reporting PSQI global scores of >5 and >8 respectively (P = .004, r = .36). However, no significant differences between student-athletes in groups reporting PSQI global scores of >5 and >8, (P = .244, r = .14) were found. Our results suggest that student-athletes experiencing poor sleep quality are more prone to report higher levels of intrusive visual imagery. As individuals can find recurrent episodes of intrusive images to be disruptive and distressing, future investigations and practitioners working with student-athletes should consider the implication of this link from an emotional and cognitive health perspective.
Original language | English |
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Pages | 31 |
Number of pages | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 18 Dec 2024 |
Event | BASES Conference 2024 - Coventry, United Kingdom Duration: 20 Nov 2024 → 21 Nov 2024 |
Conference
Conference | BASES Conference 2024 |
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Country/Territory | United Kingdom |
City | Coventry |
Period | 20/11/24 → 21/11/24 |