مسعود اسماعیل نژاد

Background: Football players, in their pursuit of optimal physical and mental performance, frequently employ various recovery techniques. Among these, sleep emerges as a consistently highlighted and crucial element in athletes’ physical and cognitive performance.  Aim: This study aimed to investigate the correlation between sleep quality and mental toughness (MT), while concurrently exploring the relationship between MT and different football positions.Materials and Methods: A total of 473 Iranian football players, comprising 287 males and 186 females, were selected through a simple random sampling method by completing two questionnaires that assessed their sleep quality (PSQI) and MT (SMTQ-14).Results: The findings showed that athletes with higher subjective sleep quality and longer sleep duration demonstrated high levels of MT. Moreover, defenders and attackers exhibited the highest levels of MT compared to other playing positions. Notably, male football players reported higher sleep quality and MT compared to their female counterparts.Conclusion: This study focused on the relationship between sleep quality and MT among football players. The study revealed that both male and female football players with better sleep quality and longer sleep duration had higher MT, with males scoring higher overall. Moreover, defenders regardless of gender, exhibited the strongest MT.