This study examined the effect of sleep hygiene education (SHE) on university athletes whose daily training is held at various times of day, including evening, night and early morning. The subjects were 24 female university athletes belonging to a softball club. A standardized questionnaire to evaluate sleep health, a general health questionnaire (GHQ) to assess mental well-being, and a week-long actigraphy providing objective sleep data were all administered during their follicular phase to yield baseline measurements. Thereafter, 11 athletes (intervention group: IG, age: 19.3 ± 0.8 yrs) voluntarily participated in SHE to attain improved sleep by changing life habits and environmental conditions. The other 13 athletes constituted the control group (CG, age: 20.4 ± 1.4 yrs) without SHE. During the next follicular phase, a similar set of measurements was conducted to assess the effects of SHE. Baseline measurements showed that the IG was significantly inferior to the CG based on subjective sleep health, GHQ, and actigraphically measured total waking time during sleep. After intervention, significant sleep improvements were noted for the IG, in terms of better subjective sleep maintenance and a decrease in total waking time during sleep, as well as an improvement in GHQ score similar to the level of the CG group. These results suggest that SHE is effective for improving sleep and psychological state in university athletes who suffer from poor sleep under an irregular training schedule.（夜間や早朝など練習時間帯が不規則な大学運動部員を対象に、睡眠衛生教育の効果を検討した。ソフトボール部に所属する女子大学生24人について、質問紙を用いた睡眠健康および精神健康の主観評価、および卵胞期の1週間装着したアクチグラフィによる睡眠の客観評価を行った。その後、11人は個別に睡眠衛生教育を受け、生活習慣・環境の改善を図る介入群、13人は研究開始当初の講話のみを聴いた対照群とした。その次の卵胞期に再度同様の評価を行い、睡眠および精神健康を評価したところ、介入群では主観的な睡眠維持および客観評価による中途覚醒時間の減少、さらに精神健康の改善など有意な変化が認められた。これらから、授業等で練習時間帯が不規則になる大学運動部員には、睡眠衛生教育の実施が有効であることが示唆された。）
pp.84-95
Koh Mizuno, Akiko Takano, Ken-ichi Funayama, Kazue Okamoto-Mizuno
