Study Finds Creatine Can Be Powerful in Fighting the Effects of Sleep Deprivation
Creatine remains a popular supplement with athletes everywhere as a key to quick recovery after intense workouts. It turns out its benefits might not be limited to your muscles.
A recent study published in the Scientific Reports journal found that a single dose of creatine seemingly was able to fight the cognitive and physiological effects of sleep deprivation on the human body. The findings might come as good news, for example, for a collegiate weightlifter who’s tired from their workout but needs to stay up late to study for an exam.
Scientists at RWTH-Aachen University Medical Center in Germany examined 15 male and female subjects between the ages of 20 to 28 and gave them either creatine or a placebo after they got an inadequate amount of sleep. They stayed in a lab where they were not allowed to sleep and the researchers spoke to them whenever they were about to doze off. They were given a relatively high dose of creatine at 0.35 grams per kilogram of body weight, which would be around 32 grams for a 200-pound man. Then the team tested the participants’ cognitive function and memory to see if the creatine had any effect.
Simply put, they found that creatine "significantly reduced fatigue" among the participants at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. the following morning. The researchers reached this conclusion after observing the subjects’ quick mental processing responses in both logical and numerical tasks. Don’t go downing tubs of creatine to stay awake, though, as there’s no substitute for a good night’s sleep.
"Our outcomes show that administering a high single dose of creatine can partially reverse metabolic alterations and fatigue-related cognitive deterioration,” the team wrote in the report.
"It can be concluded that creatine has the potential to be used in prolonged cognitive activity during sleep deprivation," they added. “Our study showed the effect of a high dose of creatine against sleep deprivation-induced deterioration in cognitive performance, lasting up to nine hours and showing its maximum cognitive effect at four hours after oral administration."
Still, more work needs to be done to determine more concrete outcomes at, say, various dosages and body weights, as well as the ideal time for creatine administration to maximize its cognitive benefits. "Future research needs to investigate the appropriate dose and determine more accurately the time point at which creatine reaches its maximum effect," they wrote.
As for what time of day you decide to work out, that's entirely up to you, though you might not want to substitute coffee for large amounts of creatine if you're tired at any point.
