Morning anaerobic performance is not altered by vigilance impairment

The aim of this study was to determine the role played by vigilance on the anaerobic performance recorded during a Wingate test performed at the bathyphase (nadir) of the circadian rhythmicity. Twenty active male participants performed a 60-s Wingate test at 6 a.m. during 3 test sessions in counter-balanced order the day after either (i) a normal reference night, (ii) a total sleep deprivation night, or (iii) a total sleep deprivation night associated with an extended simulated driving task from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. During this task, the number of inappropriate line crossings (ILCs) was used to control and quantify the effective decrease in the level of vigilance. The main findings show that (i) vigilance of each participant was significantly altered (i.e., a drastic and progressive increase in ILCs is shown during the 7.5 hours of driving) by the sleep deprivation night associated with an extended driving task; (ii) the subjective evaluation of vigilance performed by self-rated scale revealed an increased impairment of the vigilance level between the normal reference night, the total sleep deprivation night and the total sleep deprivation night associated with an extended driving task; and (iii) the morning following this last condition, during the Wingate test, the recorded cycling biomechanical parameters (peak power, mean power and fatigue index values, power decrease, and cycling kinetic and kinematic patterns) were not significantly different from the two other conditions. Consequently, these results show that anaerobic performances recorded during a Wingate test performed at the bathyphase of the circadian rhythmicity are not altered by a drastic impairment in vigilance. These findings seem to indicate that vigilance is probably not a factor that contributes to circadian variations in anaerobic performance.