While it might feel like you’re seeing creatine everywhere you look right now, the supplement’s newfound attention is well-deserved. In recent months, we’ve seen a shift in how creatine is perceived. Once the reserve of gym bros and bodybuilding circles, it’s now gaining recognition as a science-backed supplement with potentially powerful mental and physiological benefits, especially for women.
Now, a recent study published in Scientific Reports has highlighted the potential benefits of creatine following sleep deprivation. Researchers have found that one-off supplementation may offer quick-acting relief for those short on sleep.
What did the study find?
The researchers studied 15 healthy volunteers and split them into two groups. One received a high dose of creatine and the other received a placebo during 21 hours of partial sleep deprivation. The groups then swapped after a washout period, meaning they acted as their own controls (they were compared against themselves).
Participants arrived at the lab in the evening after a normal day and took creatine at 8:30 p.m., before being kept awake in a lab setting for 21 hours straight instead of going to bed and sleeping as they normally would.
The researchers found that creatine helped sustain normal phosphocreatine and ATP levels in the brain even when participants were severely sleep-deprived. These are vital brain chemicals that play a key role in energy metabolism (how the body produces energy), and if they become imbalanced – which happens when your sleep sleep suffers – you can experience a mental fog.
