Listening to motivational music during warming-up attenuates the negative effects of partial sleep deprivation on cognitive and short-term maximal performance: Effect of time of day

ABSTRACT

This study assessed the effect of time of day (TOD) and listening to music during warm-up on cognitive and physical performances after partial sleep deprivation (PSD) and normal sleep nights (NSN). In a randomized order, twelve male physical education students [mean (SD) age 20.3 ± 2.0 y; BMI 22.90 ± 3.57 kg/m²)] completed a 30-s Wingate test (i.e., mean (MP) and peak powers (PP)), simple (SRT) and choice reaction times (CRT), a mental rotation test (MRT) and a selective attention test. Measurements were performed at 07:00 h and 17:00 h after a NSN and PSD with and without music, with an in-between recovery period of ≥72. Salivary cortisol was measured before and immediately after the Wingate test. Compared to NSN, the results showed that PSD decreased PP (p < .05, d = 0.86) and MP (p < .01, d = 0.86) in the afternoon. However, compared to NSN, listening to music during the warm up after PSD enhanced PP (p < .01, d = 1.40) and MP (p < .05, d = 0.82) in the morning and PP (p < .05, d = 0.78) in the afternoon. Moreover, listening to music lowered post-exercise cortisol in the morning both after NSN (p < .05, d = 0.79) and PSD (p < .05, d = 0.11). After PSD, music reduced the negative mood states (p < .01, d = 0.94), the SRT (p < .05, d = 0.79) and the CRT (p < .05, d = 0.49) in the afternoon. These findings suggest that listening to music during warm-up (i) enhances cognitive and short-term all out performances after NSN and PSD and (ii) partially counteracts sleep-loss-induced degradation of physical and cognitive performances at both TODs.

KEYWORDS:

• Music
• warm-up
• cognitive and physical performance
• sleep
• diurnal variation

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the participants for their voluntary involvement in this study.

Abbreviations

PSD	=	partial sleep deprivation
NSN	=	normal sleep night
CRT	=	choice reaction time
SRT	=	simple reaction time
MRT	=	mental rotation test
RPE	=	rating of perceived exertion
PP	=	peak power
MP	=	mean power
TOD	=	time of day

Author’s contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SK, SA and NS. Performed the experiments: SK and SA. Analyzed the data: SK. Materials/analysis tools: SK, MR, SA and AS. Original Draft Preparation: SK, MR and NS. Review and Editing: SK, MR, SA, HC and NS.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper.