The work of physical education teachers is more demanding than that of other educators, as they need to be physically active during physical education lessons (Bizet et al., 2010). The physical education teachers think that their job offers them opportunities to stay physically fit (Lipponen et al., 2022). Career transitions among physical educators are often driven by the desire to avoid a demanding workload. Teachers with high well-being utilize various strategies to overcome challenges at their work (Lipponen et al., 2022). Coaches face a range of performance, organizational, and personal stressors that can negatively affect their mental health and well-being, but sleep quality has the potential to impact a coach's mental well-being (Frost, 2024). Inadequate sleep or sleep deprivation significantly lower overall health and well-being (Chow, 2020). Previous research reported a positive relation between physical activity and sleep quality, suggesting that engaging in physical activities enhances sleep. They also indicated that physical activity helps facilitate the severity of insomnia and other sleep disorders (Alnawwar et al., 2023). It has also been found out that moderate-intensity physical activity is more beneficial than high-intensity exercise in improving sleep quality for both young and older individuals (Wang & Boros, 2019). There is limited evidence suggesting that vigorous physical activity improves sleep quality. Both - low and vigorous physical activity improves subjective and objective indicators of sleep quality, especially in the first 3 hours of sleep. Research results show that quality sleep promotes unique personality mood changes that affect quality of life in general (Zapalac et al., 2024).

The objective of the research is to determine the impact of physical activity intensity on sports educators sleep quality.

The research question:

- What is the impact of physical activity intensity on sports educators sleep quality?

Participants were 231 sports educators (54% women and 45% men; 50% sports coaches, 20% PE teachers, 30% PE teachers and sports coaches). Following survey data set were selected: International Physical Activity Questionnaire - Short Form (IPAQ-S) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). All instruments are widely used questionnaires and adapted into Latvian. The questionnaire process and collection of respondents’ data took place anonymously, in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Human Rights. Mathematical statistics (descriptive statistics and the inferential statistics) were used. This research was funded by the framework of the Plan of the European Union Recovery and Resilience Facility and the State budget grant Nr. RSU/LSPA-PA-2024/1-0009.

The results have shown that 26% of sports educators do not engage in vigorous physical activities, while 19% engage in them two days a week. On the other hand, 10% of sports educators do not engage, but 13% involve every day in moderate physical activities during the week. 60% of sports educators rate their sleep quality as quite good, but 26% rate their sleep quality as quite bad, while only 2% rate it as very poor. The subjective sleep self-assessment of sports educators did not reveal statistically significant correlations with the regularity of intensity of physical activity performed over the past seven days. The ANOVA analysis results indicate that gender has a significant effect on intense physical activity (p = 0.000) and sleep quality (p = 0.017), suggesting that male sports educators engage in more high-intensity and physically demanding activities and report better subjective sleep quality compared to female sports educators. This study enhanced our understanding of the daily physical load of sports educators. Monitoring of appropriate load in the sports educator’s profession is very important, taking into account role of sleep in future wellbeing promotion through physical activity.

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