ABSTRACT
Soccer is a demanding sport that requires both mental and physical readiness for optimal performance (Barbour, 1993; Beswick, 2000). Sleep is important for maintaining one’s mental and physical well-being because it has two important functions: these are memory consolidation and learning, and body restoration and regeneration (Savis, 1994; Walters, 2002). Thus, sleep may influence players’ feelings of mental and physical fatigue before a match, and indirectly affect game outcome and performance. For this reason, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between sleep duration the night before a match; pregame perceived levels of head alertness (HA, indirect and subjective measure of mental fatigue) and leg quickness (LQ, indirect and subjective measure of physical fatigue); game outcome and six game performance variables (GPV) during the competitive season of an American Division I collegiate women’s soccer team.
