One night of total sleep deprivation impairs decision-making skills, anaerobic performances, mood states, and perceptual responses in elite Kung-Fu athletes

ABSTRACT

To explore how one night of total sleep deprivation (TSD) could affect cognitive and physical performances, as well as subjective experiences in 24 elite Kung-Fu athletes (age: 20.2 ± 1.76 years; body mass: 64.67 ± 6.52 kg; height: 1.71 ± 0.04 m). Participants completed, in a randomized counterbalanced order, two tests sessions in the late-afternoon (separated by 72-h recovery) under normal sleep (NS) and TSD conditions. Specific decision-making skills (decision accuracy (DA) and decision time (DT)), various anaerobic-exercises performance (i.e. seated medicine-ball throw (SMBT), horizontal jump (HJ), vertical jump (VJ), isometric back-muscles strength (IBMS), and isometric leg-muscles strength (ILMS)), mood states, and perceptual responses (attention and concentration) were assessed. The TSD was associated with lower values of vigor, and higher values of anxiety, depression, fatigue, anger, confusion, and total mood disturbance, compared to NS. The TSD resulted in lower attention and concentration, compared to NS. Similarly, lower performances of SMBT, HJ, VJ, and ILMS were recorded after TSD compared to NS. For cognitive performances, the TSD resulted in higher DA and lower DT, compared to NS. In summary, one night of TSD elicits negative effects on decision-making and anaerobic performance in Kung-Fu elites through disturbances in mood and attentional capacities.

KEYWORDS:

• Total sleep deprivation
• sports performance
• mood
• attention
• Kung-Fu

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the participants involved for their efforts, commitment, and enthusiasm throughout the study.

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 High Institute of Sport and Physical Education of Sfax’ 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.

Data availability statement

Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

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