Objective The objective of this study was to evaluate the sleep quality, sleepiness, chronotype and the anxiety level of Brazilian Paralympics athletes before the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.

Design Cross-sectional study.

Setting Exercise and Psychobiology Studies Center (CEPE) and Universidade Federal de São Paulo, an urban city in Brazil.

Participants A total of 27 Paralympics athletes of both genders (16 men and 11 women) with an average age of 28±6 years who practised athletics (track and field events) were evaluated.

Main outcome measures Sleep quality was evaluated using the Pittsburgh Scale and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale to evaluate sleepiness. Chronotype was determined by the Horne and Östberg questionnaire and anxiety through the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The evaluations were performed in Brazil 10 days before the competition.

Results The study's results demonstrate that 83.3% of the athletes that presented excessive daytime sleepiness also had poor sleep quality. The authors noted that 71.4% were classified into the morning type and 72% of the athletes who presented a medium anxiety level also presented poor sleep quality. Athletes with poor sleep quality showed significantly lower sleep efficiency (p=0.0119) and greater sleep latency (p=0.0068) than athletes with good sleep quality. Athletes who presented excessive daytime sleepiness presented lower sleep efficiency compared to non-sleepy athletes (p=0.0241).

Conclusions The authors conclude that the majority of athletes presented poor sleep quality before the competition. This information should be taken into consideration whenever possible when scheduling rest, training and competition times.