The effects of intensive exercise after one night's sleep deprivation on muscle damage indexes in the male runners

Sleep is generally considered to be a restorative process, having beneficial effects on physiological functions. Evidence suggests athletes worry about the effects of inadequate sleep on performance. The aim of present study was to examine the effects of intensive exercise after one night's sleep deprivation on muscle damage indexes in the male runners.

Twenty four collegiate male runners in Tehran volunteered to participate in this study as the subject. All the subjects, 72h days before sleep deprivation and after about 8 hours of complete sleep were performed intensive exercise. Three days later, after a 30 hours' sleep deprivation, intensive exercise were performed again. Blood samples were taken before the complete sleep or sleep deprivation and before and after the intensive exercise to measure serum creatine kinase (CK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and Aspartate transaminase (AST).

The results indicated that serum CK, LDH and AST were higher in response to intensive exercise after the sleep deprivation in compare to the intensive exercise after the complete sleep.

In summary, our results suggest that the sleep deprivation may lead to high levels of muscle damage enzymes and is may be impairs athletic performances.