Field-based athlete research has primarily focused on sleep-wake patterns, but technological advancements now enable detailed assessment of sleep architecture. This study compared sleep quantity, quality, and architecture during home (no travel
HOME) and away (eastbound travel across three time zones
AWAY) matches in professional male rugby union. The sleep of twenty athletes was assessed using home-based polysomnography over three nights per condition: two nights preceding the match (MD-2), match night (MD), and the following night after (MD + 1). Sleep duration, efficiency, onset/offset, latency, wake after sleep onset, awakenings, and sleep stages (as light, deep and rapid eye movement [REM] sleep, evaluated as proportion [%] and time [min]) were monitored. Compared to HOME, AWAY increased sleep onset latency (+12 ± 23 min