Effect Of 5-hour Energy Shot® On Simulated Car Racing Ability in Sleep-deprived College-aged Individuals

Abstract

The use of energy drinks has become commonplace in everyday activities, including sports. One of the more popular energy drinks on the market is the 5-Hour Energy Shot®. Commercial advertising of this drink suggests that one feels more awake and alert for hours while improving work and/or exercise performance. Published research supporting such claims is lacking. PURPOSE: To determine if ingesting one 5-Hour Energy Shot® compared to a placebo causes measurable improvement in performance related variables during a simulated driving task (SDT) in sleep-deprived subjects. METHODS: Nine (6 males, 3 females), college-aged (20.6 + 0.98 yrs; 1.7 + 0.08 m in ht; 74.0 + 10.18 kg in wt), volunteers participated in a double-blind, cross-over, placebo-based study. The participants were tested in a non-sleep-deprived state, and a sleep- deprived condition while driving a simulated race course. In the sleep-deprived state, subjects ingested either a randomly assigned non-caffeinated placebo (PL) (59 ml; 5 kcals) or the 5-Hour Energy Shot® (5HES) (59 ml; 4 kcals). Subsequently, data were collected at 5 consecutive time intervals (30-min, 1.5hr, 2.5hr, 3.5hr, and 4.5hr) after ingesting the drink. The SDT was a solo timed road race (Forza Horizon game) on an Xbox 360 gaming system. During each of the 6 data collection trials, heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), drive time (DT), and number of crashes (#C) were recorded. Subjects were also evaluated for drink effectiveness at each of same time points. A two-way repeated measures ANOVA was run to determine the effect of time and treatment (placebo vs 5-hr energy) on HR, SBP, DBP, DT, and #C. Significance was established at p < 0.05. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant two-way interaction between treatment and time for any of the variables (HR, SBP, DBP, DT, #C). However, for the 5-hr energy trials, post-drive HR decreased significantly by 11.714 bpm from the initial, non-sleep deprived trial to the final, sleep-deprived trial. CONCLUSION: When compared to a placebo, 5- Hour Energy Shot® did not significantly alter post-driving HR or BP measures, nor improve performance (race time or #crashes) of a simulated driving task in sleep-deprived college-aged participants.