The effects of one-night sleep deprivation and one-night recovery sleep on endurance cycling performance

Sleep deprivation (SD) seems to impair endurance performance. However, little research is available on the effects of SD in the context of repeated bouts of endurance exercise. The effect of recovery sleep on endurance performance is also poorly understood.

Twenty-six male amateur cyclists/triathletes (mean ± SD: age 30.5 ± 8.8 yr, $\dot{\text{V}}O$ _2peak 55.3 ± 4.9 mL/kg/min) were randomly allocated to SD and CONTROL groups and tested over 3 consecutive days. After baseline testing (day 1), the SD group did not sleep for 25 h (day 2) and slept normally the following night (day 3). The CONTROL group slept normally throughout the experiment. Endurance performance was assessed during 40-min moderate-intensity constant-workload cycling and 20-min time trial. Electroencephalography, questionnaires, and psychomotor vigilance task were used to assess sleepiness and vigilance before cycling. Ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), Feeling scale (FS), heart rate (HR), and blood lactate were assessed during cycling.

Sleepiness and vigilance were impaired after SD (p < 0.05), but returned to baseline after recovery sleep. RPE (p = 0.023) and FS (p = 0.013) assessed during the 40-min cycling were negatively affected by SD, but returned to baseline after recovery sleep. HR and blood lactate were not affected by SD. No significant interaction effect was observed on time-trial work.

In the context of 3 consecutive days of endurance cycling, 25-h SD negatively affected moderate-intensity performance through higher RPE, but did not affect the 20-min time trial. One-night recovery sleep was sufficient to restore moderate-intensity endurance cycling performance.