Two studies have investigated how well eventers sleep, at home and staying away at competitions
A GLOBAL “sleep intervention package” and quiet zones in lorry parks could help riders get enough quality sleep to improve safety – as could taking your pillow to events.
Two studies, carried out at Hartpury International Horse Trials last year and via a questionnaire sent to 230 FEI-registered event riders, resulted in similar recommendations to “improve the health and wellbeing of athletes and staff in equestrian sport”.
Hartpury senior lecturer Emma Davies, the co-lead on both, told H&H they were two distinct pieces of work but “the findings mirror each other”.
“Sleep is something that had never been studied in riders, despite our early mornings and extra-curricular activity,” she said. “One of our students, Sandy Wilson, is doing his PhD on sleep in our athletes and he spoke to some of our staff and students about it, which inspired a conversation about research. That expanded into these studies and we now hope to take it further and look at other sleep behaviours in the equestrian community.”
One study involved riders at last year’s horse trials wearing advanced sleep trackers for the duration of the event, and completing a questionnaire covering sleep duration, sleep difficulty, natural times for sleep and demographics.
It found that the average duration of sleep was just over six hours, not varying significantly over the event.
The other questionnaire, completed by 230 eventers, also asked whether riders had help with horses and yard duties and about caffeine consumption. The findings were similar, also finding that sleep duration was affected by whether there was a pet sleeping in the same place.
“Taking your dog to an event might affect your sleep quality,” Ms Davies said. “From the questionnaire, barriers to sleep were things like noise, from generators for example, not having your usual bed or having an uncomfortable mattress; all things that might depend on finances and lorry sleeping arrangements.”
Ms Davies highlighted one key recommendation from both studies – to implement “quiet zones” in lorry parks at events.
“Sleep is considered one of the most important elements; the most effective strategy avai
