Understanding sleep patterns and behaviors of athletes is essential for developing targeted sleep-based interventions for implementation in practice. However, more than double the number of sleep studies have examined male athletes compared with female athletes, making the current understanding of sleep patterns, behaviors, and interventions among athletes disproportionately indicative of men. Consequently, this review demonstrates the need for more female-specific sleep data among athlete populations due to research inattention and sex-related differences. Specifically, this review identifies variations in sleep patterns and behaviors between male and female athletes, as well as physiological and lifestyle factors that potentially affect sleep patterns and behaviors across the lifespan, specifically in female athletes. In this regard, evidence suggests some female athletes experience longer sleep durations and better objective sleep quality, but similar or worse subjective sleep quality compared with male athletes. Additionally, scheduling training in the morning or throughout the day may benefit sleep in some female athletes. Considering sleep disorders, women may be at greater risk for insomnia and restless legs syndrome compared with men, which may be attributed to pregnancy, as well as a higher prevalence of anxiety and depressive symptoms, iron deficiency without anemia, and use of psychotropic medication among women. Finally, the menstrual cycle, menstrual disorders, oral contraceptive use, and the postpartum period have been shown to exert detrimental effects on sleep patterns and behaviors and should theoretically be considered when monitoring and managing sleep in female athletes.

了解运动员的睡眠模式和行为对于制定有针对性的睡眠干预措施并在实践中实施至关重要。然而，与女性运动员相比，男性运动员的睡眠研究数量多了一倍多，这使得目前对运动员睡眠模式、行为和干预措施的理解不成比例地反映了男性运动员的情况。因此，本综述表明，由于研究疏忽和性别相关差异，需要更多运动员群体中女性特定的睡眠数据。具体来说，这篇综述确定了男性和女性运动员之间睡眠模式和行为的差异，以及可能影响整个生命周期睡眠模式和行为的生理和生活方式因素，特别是女性运动员。在这方面，有证据表明，与男运动员相比，一些女运动员的睡眠时间更长，客观睡眠质量更好，但主观睡眠质量相似或更差。此外，将训练安排在早上或全天可能有利于一些女运动员的睡眠。考虑到睡眠障碍，与男性相比，女性患失眠和不宁腿综合症的风险可能更大，这可能是由于怀孕所致，此外，女性更容易出现焦虑和抑郁症状、不伴有贫血的缺铁以及使用精神药物。女性。最后，月经周期、月经失调、口服避孕药的使用和产后期已被证明会对睡眠模式和行为产生有害影响，理论上在监测和管理女运动员的睡眠时应予以考虑。