Sleep better to perform better: a sleep study on RCN players

Jérôme Liotier, médecin du sommeil, a expliqué les résultats de l'enquête aux joueurs du RCN. Midi Libre – K. H.

Avec l'aide de Bastide médical, sponsor du Rugby club nîmois (RCN), les joueurs se sont prêtés à une étude édifiante sur le sommeil

Do you have to sleep like a big baby to perform better on the field ? A study on the sleep of RCN players, carried out with the help of Bastide medical, revealed astonishing data which was presented to the staff and the team by Jérôme Liotier, sleep doctor, who analyzed it.

Objective of this study: detect sleep disorders, mainly apnea, while today health and lifestyle top athletes are scrutinized from all sides: nutrition, mental health, sleep therefore… "The team doctor only takes care of injuries and prescriptions. Moreover, in many teams, the medical staff has doubled in recent years, observes Jérôme Liotier.

Two nights at the clinic

Beyond sporting performances, the RCN, a Nationale 2 team, in the Top 50 rugby teams in France, can be summed up in a few key figures: average age 24.6 years, average height 1 .88m, average weight 103 kilos, BMI 29! 

Beautiful babies who therefore agreed to spend two nights at the PGS clinic, their heads covered with sensors to record everything about their sleep. "Two nights, because the first, we often sleep poorly in an unusual environment. The second allows   really to unmask the pathologies,” explains Jérôme Liotier. And 13% of athletes did the outpatient exam at home.

In total, 15 out of 40 players were tested and the results were astonishing: "87% had sleep apnea, 60% had mild apnea but which will progress over time, two had severe apnea and 13% did not&# 39;have nothing, explains the doctor. On average, a quarter of the team tested suffers from sleep apnea greater than fifteen breathing pauses per hour. A pathology which causes drowsiness, fatigue and therefore lower performance. And ultimately, much more serious health problems (read box).

Sleep disorders and health risks

"Sleep is fifteen minutes of study over ten years of medicine!", provokes Jérôme Liotier, an anesthetist-resuscitator who has made sleep his specialty with consultations at PGS, in Nîmes, and at the Bonnefond clinic, in Alès “there is'only one week waiting for an appointment you". And he is inexhaustible on the subject while a billion people suffer from sleep apnea in the world, at least 10% of the population in France, many are not diagnosed. With serious consequences: "The risk of heart attack or stroke is multiplied by four. There is also more glaucoma, hypertension, Alzheimer's…"  And the prevalence of sleep disorders in general continues to increase: "”it was 50% before Covid, it has since risen to 70%", notes the doctor .

The subject has become more concerning for around twenty years, "the number of polygraphs (sleep examination) has increased from 350,000 to 650,000 between 2015 and 2023 and there are now 4000 sleep doctors.

For International Sleep Day, Friday March 15, information stands will be offered in the hall of the Grand Sud polyclinic in Nîmes, "with patients who will come to testify".

Sleep and performance

A prevalence higher than the national average "which is 10% of the population, with 1.7 million people treated" but which is explained by the typology of rugby players: "Male gender, morphology with a big neck, weight, moreover there are more apneas among the front lines. ..", says the doctor who adds: “What is related, 70% of the team snores… and at more than 70 decibels!& ;quot;

Beyond the diagnosis, solutions exist: for some, weight loss may be enough, otherwise, a device for sleeping on the side, an orthosis that moves the jaw forward and, in the most severe cases, a machine for breathing at night that you will have to keep for your entire life, especially since apnea worsens with age . Not very glamorous… "but so effective, assures the doctor. Patients tell me that they finally live again!"

"Sleep is the biggest legal performance-enhancing drug that most people neglect," jokes Jérôme Liotier. And so that the RCN players thrive on the pitch!