A Multiday Professional Padel Tournament Impairs Sleep, Mental Toughness, and Reaction Time: A World Padel Tour Field Study

Abstract

This study aimed to assess, for the first time, how self-reported sleep, mental toughness, and reaction time are impacted by a professional padel tournament. In addition, we evaluated whether sex, age, and/or ranking play a role in this possible effect of a tournament on these variables. Twenty-three professional players (15 men, Mage = 24 ± 6 years; eight women, Mage = 21 ± 5 years) were evaluated on two occasions: (a) baseline, in a noncompetitive week and (b) postmeasure, the morning after an individual was eliminated from the tournament. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Mental Toughness Questionnaire, and the psychomotor vigilance task were used to evaluate the dependent variables. Wilcoxon tests or paired samples t tests were employed to assess the effect of participating in the tournament. To test correlations between variables, Pearson correlation coefficients (quantitative variables) or chi-square distributions (qualitative variables) were employed. Results showed that self-reported sleep (p < .01), mental toughness (p = .01), and reaction time (p = .04) were significantly impaired by the tournament. Exploring moderating variables, results showed that mental toughness did not correlate with sleep impairments (p > .05). In contrast, a nearly significant correlation between sleep impairments and higher reaction times was found (p = .066). No significant effects of age, sex, and ranking were observed. In conclusion, participating in a padel competition impairs the self-reported sleep, mental toughness, and reaction time of professional padel players. A trend toward a significant correlation between the competition-related impairment in sleep and reaction time was observed, whereas age, ranking, and sex were not found to be moderators of any of these impairments.