Effects of caffeine ingestion on 8-km run performance and cognitive function after 26 hours of sleep deprivation

Abstract

ABSTRACT The current study aimed to examine the effects of caffeine consumption on physical and cognitive performance after an endurance race following one night of sleep deprivation. Ten recreational runners performed four test sessions in a randomized order at 09:00 h after placebo or 5 mg/kg of caffeine ingestion during a baseline night (BN) (bedtime: from 22:30 h to 07:00 h) or a night of total sleep deprivation (TSD) (26 hours of continuous wakefulness). At each session, they completed an 8-km running competition around a 400 m outdoor athletics track, and they performed the correct detection and the reaction-time tasks. In comparison with BN, performance-time and reaction-time increased, and correct detections decreased after TSD condition. Compared to placebo, caffeine ingestion improved 8-km performance-time by 48 sec (2.8%) after BN and 108 sec (4.9%) after TSD, increased correct detections after BN (p < 0.01) and TSD (p < 0.05), and decreased reaction-time after BN (p < 0.001) and TSD (p < 0.05). Therefore, caffeine is an effective strategy to mitigate the adverse effects of total sleep deprivation on physical and cognitive performance.