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Sleep is essential for athletes to recover physical fitness. It has been suggested that sleep is affected by muscle volume. Compared to female athletes, male athletes with greater muscle volume may have inferior objective sleep quality. This study aimed to assess the relationship between body composition and objective sleep parameters in male and female athletes. The body composition of 17 male and 19 female collegiate athletes were measured, and they underwent overnight home sleep monitoring. Compared with female athletes, male athletes had more muscle mass and less fat mass. Moreover, male athletes had lower sleep efficiency, longer sleep onset latency, higher arousal index, less rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and lower percentage of slow-wave (N3) sleep in the initial non-REM sleep. Furthermore, the percentage of muscle mass was inversely related, whereas fat mass or percentage of fat mass was directly related to the percentage of N3 sleep in the initial non-REM sleep. Overall, there were no significant association between sex and sleep parameters. However, a significant correlation was found within both subgroups. Objective sleep quality was suggested to be worse in male athletes than in female athletes, implying that sleep architecture may be related to the muscle volume., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: We investigated the pattern of delayed-onset muscle injury in well-trained athletes after a competitive half-marathon and the effects of post-race intake of wheat gluten hydrolysate (WGH)., Methods: Thirty well-trained college runners with a best time of 14-15 min over 5000 m raced in a half-marathon. Thereafter, they were divided into three groups based on finish times and given 0 (control), 10, or 20 g of WGH. Blood biochemical parameters were monitored at -1 d, +1 h, +1 d, and +2 d after the race. Data selected according to finish times and biochemical parameters were then analyzed., Results: Plasma creatine kinase activity peaked at 1 d after the race in the control group and correlated with post-race white blood cell counts. The post-race elevation of creatine kinase activity was dose-dependently suppressed by WGH., Conclusion: Delayed-onset muscle injury peaked in well-trained distance runners at 1 d after a half-marathon and was dose-dependently suppressed by a post-race intake of WGH.