Can regular aerobic exercise protect your heart and performance after a night of reduced sleep?

Aerobic Exercise: A Potential Rescue From the Negative Ramifications of Poor Sleep

This trial will test whether regular aerobic activity helps protect heart health, physical strength, and mental performance after a single night of partial sleep loss in otherwise healthy active or sedentary adults.

Quick facts

• Phase: Not applicable
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 30 (estimated)
• Ages: 18 Years to 39 Years
• Sex: All
• Sponsor: Florida State University (Academic / other)
• Locations: 1 site (Tallahassee, Florida)
• Trial ID: NCT06956963 on ClinicalTrials.gov

What this trial studies

In this interventional study, healthy adults who are either chronically active or sedentary will undergo an acute partial sleep deprivation protocol and have cardiovascular, autonomic, inflammatory, physical, cognitive, and mood measures recorded. Participants are grouped based on their habitual aerobic activity (>=150 min/week moderate or >=75 min/week vigorous versus <=60 min/week). Key outcomes include central hemodynamics (central blood pressure, arterial stiffness), cardio-autonomic function, markers of inflammation, handgrip and reactive strength, and reaction time/impulse control. The single-site study is conducted at Florida State University's Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine with standard exclusion criteria for uncontrolled chronic disease, poor habitual sleep, recent musculoskeletal injury, high-grade obesity, and pregnancy.

Who should consider this trial

Good fit: Adults who are otherwise healthy and either chronically active (≥150 minutes moderate or ≥75 minutes vigorous aerobic exercise per week for the last 3 months) or sedentary (≤60 minutes aerobic exercise per week for the last 3 months), who normally sleep ≥7 hours per night and do not have uncontrolled chronic disease, recent musculoskeletal injury, grade II+ obesity, or pregnancy are ideal candidates.

Not a fit: People with chronic uncontrolled cardiovascular or metabolic disease, habitual poor sleep (<7 hours/night), recent musculoskeletal injury, grade II or higher obesity, or who are pregnant may not be eligible and are unlikely to receive benefit from participation.

Why it matters

Potential benefit: If successful, the results could show that regular aerobic exercise helps blunt cardiovascular, physical, and cognitive harms from short-term sleep loss.

How similar studies have performed: Prior studies provide moderate evidence that regular aerobic exercise can reduce cognitive and mood declines after sleep loss, but direct evidence on central hemodynamics and arterial stiffness following acute partial sleep deprivation is limited, so this approach is partly supported but still relatively novel for cardiovascular endpoints.

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

* Chronically active (≥150 minutes of moderate- and/or ≥75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise per week for the last 3 months) OR
* Sedentary (≤60 minutes of aerobic exercise per week for the last 3 months)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Chronic, uncontrolled disease (cardiovascular, metabolic)
* Poor sleep (regularly achieving \<7 hours of sleep per night)
* Musculoskeletal injury in the last 6 months
* Obese (grade II or higher)
* Pregnant

Where this trial is running

Tallahassee, Florida

• Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine — Tallahassee, Florida, United States (Recruiting)

Study contacts

• Study coordinator: Brett Cross

Conditions Cardiovascular Health; Sleep