Repeated low-dose caffeine ingestion during a night of total sleep deprivation improves endurance performance and cognitive function in young recreational runners: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to assess the effects of repeated administration of low-dose caffeine during a night of total sleep deprivation on physical and cognitive performance. Twelve recreational runners (being non-habitual caffeine users) performed four test sessions in a double-blind randomized order after (i) a placebo or 6 mg/kg of caffeine ingestion during a baseline night (BN) or (ii) a placebo or three doses of 2 mg/kg of caffeine during a night of total sleep deprivation (TSD). At each session, they completed an exhaustive run at 75% of the final velocity in a Vameval test (Vvameval) around a 400 m outdoor athletics track and performed the correct detection and reaction time tasks. In comparison with BN, the TSD condition significantly impaired running performance, reaction time, and correct detections. On the contrary, caffeine intake improved exhaustive running performance after BN by 5.2% (p < .001) and after TSD by 8.9% (p < .001), increased correct detections after BN (p < .05) and TSD (p < .05), and decreased reaction time after BN (p < .01) and TSD (p < .05) compared to placebo. Therefore, the repeated ingestion of low-dose caffeine is an effective strategy to counteract the detrimental effects of total sleep deprivation on physical and cognitive performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Caffeine
• endurance
• performance
• cognitive function
• sleep deprivation

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to all the participants for their maximal effort and cooperation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Faculty of medicine’s research committee, University of Sfax, Tunisia, and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.