Implications of sleep loss or sleep deprivation on muscle strength: a systematic review

Does sleep deprivation (SD) affect various indices of muscle strength? To Jack’s complete lack of surprise: probably yes.

This systematic review investigated 13 studies on the links.

Tl;dr: Drop setting those Z’s may be eating into sick gainz bro

For background:

· 7-9 hrs sleep per night is recommended for most people

· Poor quality and duration sleep is of “an even higher prevalence in athletes” due to time-zone transitions, enviro factors, training and comp demands, psyche issues, and disturbed circadian rhythms

· Some data suggested habitual sleep durations in athletes at or over 7 h, but over 50% experiencing sleep disturbance, and 25% highly disturbed sleep

· Moreover, “Sleep has long been recognised as a key component of recuperation and preparation for high-intensity training and performance”

· “When individuals were subjected to only 3-hour sleep for 3 consecutive nights both maximal strength and submaximal lift capacity were significantly reduced during bench press, leg press and deadlift”

· Partial SD is a reduction of sleep per night compared to habitual over a 24-hr period – being common in western populations at ~45%

Key findings:

· “The findings … highlight the detrimental effects of SD on strength performance. Individuals involved in strength-based activities should prioritize adequate sleep to optimize their physical performance”

· “Both acute and chronic SD were found to result in some measures of muscle strength, power output, and muscular endurance to be significantly reduced”

· “most research papers (N=10; 76.9%) established significant differences in at least one of the assessed strength measures between sleep loss conditions vs. normal sleep”, though this differed based on sleep loss protocol

· “impaired neuromuscular function and increased fatigue were commonly observed in sleep-deprived individuals”

· “Grip strength was found to be significantly reduced in three studies”

· “Bench press and hand grip values both improved to levels comparable to normal sleep after a 1-hour powernap”

· “Because weightlifting is done in the evening rather than the morning, the homeostatic component increases due to the increased time awake”

· Sleep loss may result in changes in lactate accumulation and exhaustion due to incomplete recovery, and hence decrease muscle fibre recruitment or a change in motor unit firing frequency

· For Maximal Voluntary Contraction (MVC), “Three studies found significant decrease, MVC was significantly decreased only during PSD at the end of the night in the afternoon before and after the judo combat, compared to normal sleep”

· “These benefits could be attributed to increased core temperatures and stronger aerobic engagement in energy production during afternoon exercise”

· “Also, during the menstrual cycle, females’ muscle recovery was found to be delayed. It is possible that female hormones and menstrual cycles play a role in the association between sleep duration and muscle strength in females”

· “Previous night’s sleep duration did not affect the 1RM weights for the snatch, clean and jerk, and front squat”, and hence, “24-hour period of SD might be insufficient to induce the anticipated performance decline, given the inclusion of several demanding motor tasks”

· Also, one study “found that one night of PSD had no impact on maximal lifting performance in exercises such as the biceps curl, bench press, leg press, and deadlift”

· “Athletes and coaches should prioritize sleep as part of training and recovery strategies, recognizing that the impact of SD varies by muscle group, exercise type, gender, and limb dominance”

Ref: Easow, J., Bommasamudram, T., Munnilari, M., Adhikari, R., Edwards, B. J., Nayak, K. R., … & Pullinger, S. A. (2025). Sleep and Breathing, 29(4), 1-13.