Impact of Acute Sleep Deprivation on Laboratory Exercise Performance
Acute sleep loss (≤6 hours) impairs exercise performance across multiple modalities, with the greatest decline observed in skill-based tasks requiring fine motor control and coordination.
Sleep is a critical physiological parameter for laboratory research involving physical exertion. While general advice suggests prioritizing rest, quantifying the objective impact of acute sleep deprivation on exercise performance remains relevant for experimental design. A recent meta-analysis by Craven et al. examined 69 studies with 227 outcomes regarding how acute sleep loss (≤6 hours of sleep in a 24-hour period) affected exercise performance. The authors categorized exercise tasks into seven types: anaerobic power, strength and strength-endurance, speed/power endurance, endurance, skill-based tasks, high-intensity intervals, and others. Across almost every category, sleep loss impaired performance.