Sleep Problems As A Predictor Of Gastrointestinal Symptoms During Endurance Competition
Wilson, Patrick Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: July 2020 - Volume 52 - Issue 7S - p 316
PURPOSE: Gastrointestinal (GI) disorders like irritable bowel syndrome and functional dyspepsia are more common in people with sleep problems. No research, however, has examined the relationships between sleep problems and GI disturbances in endurance athletes, particularly symptoms that occur during competition.
METHODS: Within 24 hours of finishing an endurance race (minimum of 1-hour duration), 73 participants (27 men, 46 women; 39.2 ± 11.0 years) completed the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale (MOSSS) and reported the amount of time (min) slept the night before the race. In addition, participants reported the severity (0-10 scale) of four upper (nausea, regurgitation/reflux, fullness, bloating) and three lower (abdominal cramps, flatulence, urge to defecate) GI symptoms experienced during the races. Individual symptom scores were added together to obtain overall, upper, and lower GI symptom scores. Spearman’s rank-order correlations were used to examine whether scores on the Sleep Problems Index-(SPI)-I of the MOSSS were associated with GI symptom scores. Partial correlations were also calculated to control for age, gender, body mass index, race duration, and trait anxiety levels.
RESULTS: There were significant correlations between scores on the SPI-I and total GI symptom scores (rho = 0.24, p = 0.045) as well as upper GI symptom scores (rho = 0.30, p = 0.011). Lower GI symptoms were not significantly correlated with SPI-I scores (rho = 0.14, p = 0.135). Only the correlation between upper GI symptoms and SPI-I scores remained significant (rho = 0.24, p = 0.049) after controlling for age, gender, body mass index, race duration, and trait anxiety levels. Sleep duration from the night before the race was not significantly correlated with any of the GI-symptom variables.
CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that chronic sleep problems, but not acute pre-event sleep duration, is modestly associated with the severity of upper GI symptoms during endurance races.