Ultra-marathon events may require long periods of sustained wakefulness, with few opportunities for sleep.

Due to the combination of hazardous terrain, sleep deprivation, and physiological strain, ultra-marathon participation presents a risk to health and safety. In most circumstances, events have a set distance, typically between 31 and 100 miles (50–161 km) but may extend beyond 200 miles (e.g., Moab 240 386 km) for single-effort continuous events. In events in which time is limited, runners are given a certain duration of time to run as far as possible. Ultra-marathon events are limited in either time or distance. Interestingly, runners obtained less than the recommended ~8 h of sleep per night, in both pre-race and post-race phases of the competition.Īn ultra-marathon is a foot race beyond the traditional marathon distance of 26.6 miles (42.2 km), usually undertaken on challenging off-road trails. In-race sleep data suggest an increased need for sleep as race duration increases. However, obtained sleep, the number of sleep episodes, and sleep episode length were greater than those previously reported with 100-mile (161 km) runners. Runners in the 200-mile (326 km) ultra-marathon drastically restricted their sleep. Runners averaged 6.0 ± 1.3 h of sleep per night in the week before the competition and 6.3 ± 1.3 h per night in the week following the competition. On average, runners obtained 4.7 ± 3.0 h of sleep from 4.8 ± 2.4 sleep episodes, averaging 59.9 ± 49.2 min of sleep per episode. All runners completed the 200-mile event in an average of 82.5 ± 7.1 h. Descriptive analysis of runners’ subjective and objective sleep data was conducted.

Wrist-worn activity monitors, in conjunction with self-report sleep diaries, were used to measure sleep, beginning seven days prior to the race and concluding seven days following the race (2–19 June 2021). A longitudinal, observational study was conducted to collect the sleep data of four (two females mean age: 45.5 ± 3.1 years) runners competing in a 200-mile ultra-marathon (N = 4). The aim of this study was to examine the sleep–wake behaviour of 200-mile ultra-marathon runners before, during, and after a competition.

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