Background To evaluate the impact of pre-competition sleep quality on the mood and performance of elite air-rifle shooters. Methods Elite shooters who participated in an air-rifle shooting-competition from April 2019 to October 2019 were evaluated using actigraphy, including Total Sleep Time (TST), Sleep Efficiency (SE), Sleep Latency (SL), Wake-time after Sleep Onset (WASO). Sleep quality was assessed by Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and Profile of Mood State (POMS). Mood state was assessed by Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2. Results Study included 23 shooters, of them 13 male and 10 female with the mean age 23.11 ± 4.82 years. The average time to fall asleep was 20.6 ± 14.9 min, TST was 7.0 ± 0.8 h and SE was 85.9 ± 5.3%. Average sleep quality was 5.2 ± 2.2 and tended to decrease as the competition progressed. Pre-competition sleep time in female athletes was significantly higher compared to the competition day (P = 0.05). Pre-competition SL was significantly longer in women than in men (P = 0.021). During training and pre-competition, the tension, fatigue, depression, and emotional disturbance were significantly lower in athletes with good sleep quality. Athletes with good sleep quality had significantly more energy. The PSQI total score positively correlated with cognitive anxiety (r = 0.471, P < 0.01), and somatic anxiety (r = 0.585, P < 0.01), and negatively correlated with energy (- 0.504, P < 0.01) and self-confidence scores (r = - 0.523, P < 0.01). Conclusion Poor sleep quality negatively impacted the mood of athletes; however, sleep indices and competition performance of athletes during competitions were not significantly correlated.
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