The examination of mental toughness, sleep, mood and injury rates in an Arctic ultra-marathon There are hardly any research that examines the physiological and psychological impact of ultra race on athlete under extreme conditions. The purpose of the study was to identify frequent injury patterns and diseases, mood states and sleep patterns and finally to examine the relationships between mental load capacity, sleep, mood and injury rates during a three-day Arctic ultra-marathon over 120 miles. Twelve participants (3 women, 9 men) With an average age of 42 ± 5.35 years participated in the study.The mental state was measured using the MT18 questionnaire. Injuries were clinically assessed every day and recorded. The temperatures were between -20 and -6 degrees Celsius throughout the race.Sleep duration and mood were recorded with the brums questionnaire. 10 The 12 participants suffered injuries.Almost half of the participants had injuries that are over several days. The average sleep duration over the three days was 4.07 hours with an average of 0.78 injuries per day. During the three days, significant mood changes were determined, in particular a reduction in vitality and an increase in fatigue.Neither the sleep amount nor the spiritual resilience correlated with the injury rate. Interestingly, the sleep amount did not hood with mood swings.The mental hardness correlated moderate negative with depression, reduced anger, confusion, increased force and tension during the race.
The success in this type of event requires significant psychological and physiological preparation to minimize the effects of sleep deprivation and avoiding injury. The work can be found under https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32089095/