The importance of sleep cannot be emphasized heavily enough. Getting consistent quality sleep is vital for getting the results you want from your workouts and living a healthy life.
Unfortunately, modern living doesn’t always align with a good night’s rest. We have greater demands for our time and attention. We’re bombarded by blue light 24 hours a day thanks to an abundance of technological devices, which can stunt melatonin secretion, making it that much harder to fall asleep and stay asleep at night.
In case you weren’t aware, sleep deprivation impairs athletic performance, hinders recovery, increases the risk of accidents as well as chronic diseases. It can also reduce productivity, decrease motivation (which can lead you to skip workouts), and increase irritability.
Stimulants, like caffeine, are often used to combat sleep deprivation. While effective, not everyone responds well to stimulants.
New research finds that the GOAT of sports nutrition (creatine monohydrate) may also help you perform better mentally following a night of bad sleep (or no sleep at all).
The Study: How Creatine Combats the Effects Sleep Deprivation
15 healthy men and women participated in a randomized, controlled, double-blinded crossover trial.[1] This means that each person served as their own control as they received both the placebo and the treatment (creatine monohydrate) over the course of the study.
Individuals were instructed to stop caffeine and occasional alcohol intake at least 48 hours before the measurement nights and not resume consumption in between. Subjects were requested to get 8 hours of sleep every night (11PM to 7AM), and record his/her sleep/wake time two weeks before and between the study sessions.
On the assessment days, the participants were kept awake overnight, supervised the entire time, and spoken to whenever it seemed like they were nodding off. As if that didn’t sound bad enough, the participants were not allowed to engage in any other “cognitively stressful” activities during their overnight stay, such as working on a laptop, watching movies, or playing games.
Note: They were allowed to drink fluids (not coffee or alcohol) and eat light (non meat) snacks. This was done to ensure that individuals weren’t getting any additional creatine from their snacks which could impact the results of the study.
On one assessment night, participants received 0.35 g/kg creatine. On the other night, he/she received 0.35 g/kg placebo.
To put things in perspective, a 130-lb (59kg) female would consume 20.7 grams of creatine in a single dose.
During their awake period, individuals also performed a battery of cognitive tests that tested vigilance, memory, and multiple-choice tasks. Processing time of each task was also recorded by the research team.
The Results: Creatine Combats the Effects of Sleep Deprivation
To no one’s surprise, sleep deprivation compromised the individual’s vigilance and short-term memory performance in the tests.[1]
However, taking a high single dose of creatine reduced the individual’s subjective fatigue compared to placebo and it also improved performance on vigilance and cognitive tests. These effects began around three hours after taking creatine, and peaked at the four hour mark. Improvements in vigilance and processing capacity lasted up to nine hours post supplementation.
The Bottom Line
Creatine’s benefits are well established for both mental and physical performance. However, these effects are noticed when creatine has been supplemented daily for at least one week and up to one month.
This new study demonstrates that creatine (albeit at a relatively high dose) may be effective after a single dose.
Researchers theorize that one reason that this high dose of creatine may offer acute benefits is due to the state of increased stress the brain is under following sleep deprivation. This is just one study, but lays the groundwork for more research to be done in the area of creatine and cognitive performance.
The Best Creatine Supplement
Creatine supplements have been around for a long time. We know that you have a lot of options out there, but do you trust the quality of those products?
1UP Pure Rebuild contains a full research-backed dose (5,000mg) of creatine monohydrate. But, that’s just the start. Every serving also contains 2,500mg of betaine anhydrous, 5,000mg L-Glutamine, essential amino acids (EAAs) to support muscle recovery and a robust serving of electrolytes to support hydration.
To top it off, 1UP Pure Rebuild contains no artificial colors and is lab-tested to guarantee quality and purity.
References
- Gordji-Nejad, A., Matusch, A., Kleedörfer, S. et al. Single dose creatine improves cognitive performance and induces changes in cerebral high energy phosphates during sleep deprivation. Sci Rep 14, 4937 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-54249-9
