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A growing body of research focus on athletes' sleep in order to investigate the effects of sleep in sports performance and recovery or the prevalence of sleep disorders in athletes. At the same time, several sleep monitoring tools have been developed and used in athletic populations for fulfilling these purposes. This review aimed to provide critical assessment to the most used by athletes' methodological approaches and compared them with the gold standard approach. Advantages and disadvantages of the various sleep monitoring tools were critically discussed. Literature related to aspects of athletes' sleep was reviewed. From the shortlisted studies, several factors that seem to affect sleep in athletes were identified using objective methods such as polysomnography/electroencephalography and actigraphy. These factors were associated to sleep (eg such as sleep environment, familiarization procedures and napping) and daily habits (eg nutrition, fluid consumption, alcohol and caffeine intake, tobacco use). The selected studies that evaluated sleep objectively were screened according the reporting rates of these variables. The majority of the screened studies were found to underreport these variables. Practical issues were addressed and recommendations about reporting sleep-related factors were made in order to improve studies' quality assessment and allow for more robust comparisons between studies., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Uremic restless legs syndrome (RLS) has been related to an enhanced mortality of hemodialysis (HD) patients. In the general population studies of this association have yielded inconsistent results. The aim of the present study was to re-evaluate the relationship of RLS and mortality in HD patients., Methods: We recorded the 3-year mortality in 579 HD patients after assessment for RLS symptoms. This population has been previously evaluated for the prevalence of RLS, according to the essential criteria of the International RLS Study Group. Mortality data were acquired from the national end-stage renal disease registry. Survival probability was calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method and analyzed by the log-rank test. For multivariate survival analysis, we implemented a Cox regression model., Results: During the 3-year follow-up, we documented 118 deaths. Mortality was 15.6% in patients with RLS and 22.3% in patients without RLS (p =  0.079). According to the Cox regression analysis, there was no significant association between RLS and 3-year mortality, either in an age- and gender-adjusted model (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.772, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.488-1.219, p = 0.267) or in a multivariate adjusted model (HR = 0.667, 95% CI = 0.417-1.069, p = 0.092)., Conclusion: Diagnosis of RLS according to the essential criteria of the International RLS Study Group does not seem to influence the 3-year mortality in HD patients. Our findings are in contrast to those in some previous reports, and reinforce the need for further studies of RLS and mortality in HD., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a sensorimotor disorder characterized by an uncontrolled need to move extremities accompanied by unpleasant sensations, which frequently leads to sleep disturbances. In hemodialysis (HD) patients, the previously reported RLS prevalence varied enormously, between 6% and 60%. In our study, we investigated the RLS prevalence in HD patients for the first time in Greece., Methods: A continuous sample of HD patients was studied between January and September of 2010 in six dialysis units in Greece. RLS diagnosis was based on the essential clinical criteria of the International RLS Study Group (IRLSSG). The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) for RLS in HD patients was calculated in comparison to data from a recent survey of the general population in Greece., Results: In our study of 579 HD patients in Greece (236 women; mean age, 65±13years), the prevalence of RLS was elevated in comparison to the general population (26.6% vs 3.9%), with an SIR of 5.4 (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.6-6.3). In the fully adjusted model, the risk for RLS in HD patients was reduced in older age (odds ratio [OR], 0.98 [95% CI, 0.96-0.99]) and increased in women (OR, 1.60 [95% CI, 1.05-2.43]) in cases with elevated levels of β2 microglobulin (OR, 1.15 [95% CI, 1.01-1.32]) and intact parathormone (iPTH) (OR, 1.30 [95% CI, 1.08-1.56])., Conclusion: A high RLS prevalence was recorded in a large HD population in Greece, clearly suggesting the need for enhanced awareness of RLS in nephrology. The RLS risk was increased in women and in younger HD patients as well as in those with elevated β2 microglobulin and iPTH levels., (Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V.)