Cognitive performance and self-reported sleepiness are modulated by time-of-day during a mountain ultramarathon

Abstract

Ninety-two runners completed the study during a 168 km mountain ultramarathon (MUM). Sleepiness, self-reported sleep duration, and cognitive performance were assessed the day before the race and up to eight checkpoints during the race. Sleepiness was assessed using the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale. Cognitive performance was also assessed using the Digital Symbol Substitution Task (DSST). Runner reported 23.40 ± 22.20 minutes of sleep (mean ± SD) during the race (race time: 29.38 to 46.20 hours). Sleepiness and cognitive performance decrements increased across this race, and this was modulated by time-of-day with higher sleepiness and greater performance decrements occurring during the early morning hours. Runners who slept on the course prior to testing had poorer cognitive performance, which may suggest that naps on the course were taken due to extreme exertion. This study provides evidence that cognitive performance deficits and sleepiness in MUM are sensitive to time into race and time-of-day.

Analysis of food and fluid intake in elite ultra-endurance runners during a 24-h world championship

“…Ultramarathon races (> 42.195 km) have gained popularity in the last two decades [ 1 – 3 ] and are now used as experimental models to assess the effects of sleep deprivation [ 4 , 5 ] and muscular [ 6 , 7 ] and cardiac [ 8 , 9 ] damage. Most of the focus has been on the analysis of nutritional and fluid intake [ 10 , 11 ].…”

To Nap or Not to Nap? A Systematic Review Evaluating Napping Behavior in Athletes and the Impact on Various Measures of Athletic Performance

“… 5 , 6 , 8 , 24–57 Both males and females were included in 35.1% (n = 13) of studies, 5 , 6 , 8 , 29 , 30 , 32 , 34–36 , 41 , 48 , 50 , 51 8.1% (n = 3) of studies included females exclusively, 37 , 38 , 57 and 48.6% (n = 18) studies included males only. 24–26 , 31 , 33 , 37 , 40 , 42 , 43 , 45–47 , 49 , 52–56 Three studies (8.1%) did not report sex. 27 , 28 , 44 The mean age of athletes was 23±4 years.…”

“…Overall, four main types of sleep assessments (eg, questionnaires, sleep diaries, actigraphy, and polysomnography) were used in the included studies. The most common form of sleep assessment was subjective, with ten (27%) studies employing self-report questionnaires 26–30 , 33 , 36 , 48 , 50 , 51 and seven (18.9%) studies employing self-report sleep diaries. 32 , 34 , 35 , 39 , 49 , 54 , 57 Thirteen (35.1%) studies utilized wrist actigraphy as an objective form of sleep assessment, 5 , 6 , 24 , 25 , 31 , 37 , 38 , 40–44 , 46 whereas six studies (16.2%) used polysomnography, the gold standard in sleep assessment.…”

The effect of sex, age and performance level on pacing of Ironman triathletes

“…In this type of study, individual factors of endurance performance such as anthropometric (Hoffman, 2008;Knechtle, Knechtle, Christoph, & Rosemann, 2011) and demographic characteristics (Hoffman & Fogard, 2012), as well as training regimes (Gulbin & Gaffney, 1999;Knechtle et al, 2011;Knechtle, Wirth, Baumann, Knechtle, & Rosemann, 2010), motivation (Hodge, Allen, & Smellie, 2008;Houston, Dolan, & Martin, 2011;Krouse, Ransdell, Lucas, & Pritchard, 2011) and previous race experience (Knechtle et al, 2010) could not be taken into consideration. Other aspects that were not controlled in our analysis were nutrition , hydration , sleeping habits (Hurdiel et al, 2018) and substance use (Didier et al, 2017). Additionally, the comparability of performances between different triathlon races might be limited due to the differing race courses and weather conditions (Rüst et al, 2012).…”