ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Elite Sports and Performance Enhancement
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1519987
This article is part of the Research TopicIntegrating Sleep, Nutrition, and Mental Health in Student-Athletes: A Holistic Approach to Performance and Well-beingView all 3 articles
The influence of partial sleep restriction on repeated sprint ability and reaction time in university athletes
Provisionally accepted
- University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
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Few studies have assessed the influence of acute sleep restriction on repeated sprint ability and reaction time, which are important characteristics of many sports. Additionally, no within-measures study has compared the acute effect of interrupting sleep to an equivalent quantity of sleep lost by going to bed late. This study examined the influence of sleep restriction, achieved by going to sleep late, or by interrupting sleep, on repeated sprint ability and reaction time. Sixteen university team sport players completed 3 conditions in a counterbalanced order; 1) normal sleep ("Control"), 2) 50% sleep loss achieved by going to be late ("Late"), and 3) 50% sleep loss achieved by waking in the middle of their scheduled sleep ("Interrupt"). The following morning, participants completed ten, 8 s all-out cycle sprints, each separated by 52 s recovery. Reaction time to a Go/No-Go test was measured during each recovery interval. Peak and minimum power output for each repeated sprint interval was always lower in the Late (mean difference (MD) -17 W, P=0.014, and MD -14 W, P=0.022) and Interrupt conditions (MD -25 W, P<0.001 and MD -24 W, P<0.001), compared to Control. Additionally, average power output was lower across all sprint attempts in Interrupt (MD -14 W, P=0.007), but not Late (MD -7 W, P=0.170) compared to Control. Reaction time was never different between conditions. One night of 50% sleep loss can acutely impair repeated sprint ability. Interrupting sleep might be more deleterious than an equivalent amount of sleep lost through late sleep onset.
Keywords: sleep restriction, exercise performance, Sprint interval exercise, University sport, sleep quality
Received: 30 Oct 2024; Accepted: 25 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wannell, Brunner, Lovibond and Bond. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Bert Bond, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
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