Little research to date, has explored sleep 'quality'-sport interactions within the sport science and medicine literature and, as a result, information on insomnia symptomatology and its implications for sports performance among elite athletes remains unexplored. Broadly, the aim of the thesis was, therefore, to explore the construct of sleep quality in the context of elite sport performance. The first chapter systematised the literature on sleep quality among elite athletic populations and

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... d that levels of poor sleep quality and insomnia symptomatology were generally high. The most influential source of sleep disturbance identified in the systematic review was competitions, with the literature further identifying nights immediately prior to competitions as characterised by longer sleep latencies. Because sleep is repeatedly challenged in elite sport, and night-time sleep loss is likely among athletes, the ability to compensate through daytime napping takes on a special importance. The finding in Chapter 3, however, found napping was unrelated to night-time sleep quality and introduced the possibility that napping in elite sport may, under some circumstances, be less related to homeostatic sleep need, and more related to the construct of 'sleepability' (a capacity to nap on demand that is only weakly related to homeostatic sleep pressure). Again, the construct of arousal is relevant, since an ability to nap 'on demand' requires also an ability to effectively manage the arousal mechanisms which promote daytime wakefulness. These assumptions were confirmed in Chapter 4, which also supplied evidence for the influence of arousal mechanisms in predicting first night effects in elite athletes. Correlations between sleep latency and Ford Insomnia Response Test (FIRST) scores (which are presumed to reflect a propensity for hyperarousal) for the adaptation trial suggest that hyperarousal may identify those athletes whose sleep is most influenced by first-night effects. Two arousal-related aspects of athlete sleep mana [...]