Effects of sleep disturbances on subsequent physical performance

Summary

The purpose of the study was to compare the cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic responses to exercise of highly endurance trained subjects after 3 different nights i.e. a baseline night, a partial sleep deprivation of 3 h in the middle of the night and a 0.25-mg triazolam-induced sleep. Sleep-waking chronobiology and endurance performance capacity were taken into account in the choice of the subjects. Seven subjects exercised on a cycle ergometer for a 10-min warmup, then for 20 min at a steady exercise intensity (equal to the intensity corresponding to 75% of the predetermined maximal oxygen consumption) followed by an increased intensity until exhaustion. The night with 3 h sleep loss was accompanied by a greater number of periods of wakefulness (P<0.01) and fewer periods of stage 2 sleep (P<0.05) compared with the results recorded during the baseline night. Triazolam-induced sleep led to an increase in stage 2 sleep (P<0.05), a decrease in wakefulness (P<0.05) and in stage 3 sleep (P<0.05) After partial sleep deprivation, there were statistically significant increases in heart rate (P<0.05) and ventilation (P<0.05) at submaximal exercise compared with results obtained after the baseline night. Both variables were also significantly enhanced at maximal exercise, while the peak oxygen consumption (VO₂) dropped (P<0.05) even though the maximal sustained exercise intensity was not different. Lactate accumulation was altered by sleep loss, undergoing an upward drift from the 9th min of steady power output [4.92 (SEM 0.44) mmol·1⁻¹ vs control (CT) 3.91 (SEM 0.27) mmol·1⁻¹, P<0.05] until maximal effort [10.92 (SEM 0.83) mmol·1⁻¹ vs CT 9.26 (SEM 0.79) mmol·1⁻¹, P<0.05]. After triazolam-induced sleep, heart rate, ventilation, (VO₂) and blood lactates were not significantly different during steady power output from the values observed after the baseline night. However the maximal sustained exercise intensity was greater [380 (SEM 13.1) W vs CT 361.4 (SEM 13) W, P<0.01], which led to an increase in ventilation (P<0.01) without any change in heart rate, (VO₂) or lactate concentration. These results suggested that partial sleep loss may have contributed to the change in athletic performance and that triazolam did not impair the physiological responses to exercise during the following afternoon.