INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of delayed evening mealtime on sleep quality in young athletes. METHODS: Twelve young rugby players (age 15.8 ± 0.7 years) participated in a cross-over within-participant design. Adolescents spent 5 consecutive days in each of two conditions, separated by a two-week washout period: routine dinner (RD, 3.5 hours before bedtime) and late dinner (LD, 1.5 hours before bedtime). Dietary intakes and amount of physical activity were constant throughout the study. Sleep was assessed using polysomnography on the first and the last nights of each condition. Data were analyzed using Student paired t-test or Wilcoxon tests. RESULTS: Sleep efficiency (SE) was of 4.8% higher in LD compared to RD (p = 0.001, d = 1.24). An increase in total sleep time by 24 min (p = 0.001, d = 1.24) was obtained during LD. Improvement in SE was mainly due to a lower wake after sleep onset (-25 min, p = 0.014, d = -3.20), a decrease in the number of micro-arousals (-25%, p = 0.049, d = -0.64) and awakenings of more than 90s (-30%, p < 0.01, d = -0.97) in LD compared to RD. There were no significant differences in sleep architecture except for a shorter slow-wave sleep (SWS; N3) latency (-6.9 min, p = 0.02, d = -0.778) obtained during LD compared to RD. CONCLUSION: Evening dinner 1.5 hours before bedtime leads to better quality and less fragmented sleep compared to evening dinner 3.5 hours before bedtime in young athletes.
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