Effect of sleep restriction on recovery from muscle damage: A randomized crossover study.
Description
This study investigated the effects of partial sleep restriction on the recovery process following exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) in healthy, untrained men. Using a randomized crossover design, sixteen participants underwent two experimental conditions: habitual sleep (HS) and sleep restriction (SR), the latter involving a 50% reduction in total sleep time for two consecutive nights. Muscle damage was induced through an eccentric exercise protocol consisting of elbow flexion with high overload (130% of one-repetition maximum). Various markers of muscle recovery were evaluated at baseline, immediately post-exercise, and 24 and 48 hours after the protocol. These included biochemical markers (creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase), morphological assessments (muscle thickness, echo intensity), bioelectrical impedance (phase angle), and perceptual measures (pain sensitivity, pain tolerance, and strength performance). The results showed significant time effects for all variables, confirming that the exercise protocol effectively induced muscle damage. However, no significant differences were observed between the sleep restriction and habitual sleep conditions, indicating that two nights of 50% sleep reduction did not impair the peripheral recovery process. These findings suggest that short-term partial sleep loss may not substantially disrupt muscle repair or inflammatory modulation, although longer or repeated periods of sleep restriction could lead to cumulative physiological consequences. The study contributes novel evidence to the understanding of the interaction between sleep and skeletal muscle recovery, emphasizing that mild sleep restriction—common in daily life—may not compromise short-term muscular recovery after eccentric exercise.