Sleep quality of professional e-Sports athletes (Counter Strike: Global Offensive)

Background: E-Sports athletes stay for long periods in front of televisions or monitors, with this, it is speculated that there are alterations on their sleep quality and quantity.

Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the sleep quality of professional e-Sports players, specifically the players of the Counter-Strike: Global Offense (CS: GO) game.

Methods & Results: The study was carried out with 12 young people between 17 and 25 years old. To analyze the sleep pattern, the following questionnaires were applied: Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), Morningness-eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), Epworth sleepiness scale (EES), and Sleep Diary for 7 consecutive days. The results showed that the players were 21.58±0.5 years, most had an evening type chronotype, followed by the neither chronotype. The e-Sports athletes showed poor sleep quality, increased sleep latency, reduced sleep efficiency, and were borderline for excessive daytime sleepiness. Positive correlations have been demonstrated for: excessive daytime sleepiness, sleep latency and sleep efficiency with age, with these factors being worse in younger athletes.

Conclusion: In this context, the results suggest that CS: GO e-Sports athletes presented poor sleep quality, which were more pronounced in younger athletes.