(09) CARDIAC-AUTONOMIC MARKERS OF RECOVERY IMPROVE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING A FLOTATION-RESTRICTED ENVIRONMENTAL STIMULATION THERAPY SESSION IN NCAA ATHLETES

Collegiate athletes experience a variety of stressors related to their athletic and academic commitments and the cumulative effects of these demands can negatively affect their recovery and performance. Recovery modalities, such as flotation-restricted environmental stimulation therapy (FLOAT), are utilized as interventions to assist and potentially enhance the body’s natural recovery processes. Controlled investigations over the last 3 decades have shown that FLOAT improves health and wellness factors such as reducing stress and anxiety and enhancing mood and sleep, mainly in clinical and general populations. More recent evidence has shown FLOAT impacts physical performance and recovery in controlled, athletic settings. Athletes are a unique population, needing recovery from high physical, emotional, and academic stressors, thus warranting further research to understand the effects of FLOAT on recovery and sleep in free-living, athletic settings.

Purpose: To evaluate the relationship between FLOAT and cardiac-autonomic indicators of recovery and sleep in elite collegiate athletes.

Methods: This retrospective analysis of data collected as a part of routine athlete monitoring from 2021-2023 included 100 (n=49 female) National Collegiate Athletics Association Division I athletes from 12 different sports (Women’s Basketball, 4; Women’s Diving, 1; Men’s Diving, 2; Field Hockey, 7; Football, 7; Women’s Ice Hockey, 9; Men’s Ice Hockey, 4; Women’s Soccer 8; Women’s Swimming, 20; Men’s Swimming, 30; Men’s Volleyball, 6; Wrestling, 2). Athletes wore an Oura ring (OURA Health, Oulu, Finland) nightly and completed at least one FLOAT session. Heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate (RHR), sleep time, and sleep efficiency were assessed the night immediately before (PRE) and following (POST) a 60-minute, daytime FLOAT session. Paired samples t-tests comparing cardiac-autonomic and sleep parameters from the night before and after the FLOAT session were performed in JMP Pro 16, and Cohen's d values were calculated using R, version 4.2.1. The alpha level was set at p = 0.05.

Results: There were a total of 182 instances of an athlete wearing the Oura Ring PRE and POST the FLOAT session. PRE and POST FLOAT were significantly different for HRV (p = 0.0402, d = 0.135) and RHR (p = 0.0154, d = -0.183), but not for sleep time (p = 0.3224, d = 0.0563), or sleep efficiency (p = 0.4811, d = 0.0273).

Conclusions: Following a single FLOAT session, cardiac-autonomic indicators of recovery, HRV and RHR, acutely improved despite no significant differences in sleep time or sleep efficiency. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Collegiate athletes have increased recovery demands that can be negatively impacted by external stressors such as academic and athletic schedules. Therefore, safe and effective recovery modalities can provide athletes with viable options to enhance recovery processes. These results suggest that FLOAT may be a viable recovery modality to improve cardiac-autonomic function and recovery in collegiate athletes.

Acknowledgements: None