Maximal aerobic exercise following prolonged sleep deprivation.

The effect of 60 h without sleep upon maximal oxygen intake was examined in 12 young women, using a cycle ergometer protocol. The arousal of the subjects was maintained by requiring the performance of a sequence of cognitive tasks throughout the experimental period. Well-defined oxygen intake plateaus were obtained both before and after sleep deprivation, and no change of maximal oxygen intake was observed immediately following sleep deprivation. The endurance time for exhausting exercise also remained unchanged, as did such markers of aerobic performance as peak exercise ventilation, peak heart rate, peak respiratory gas exchange ratio, and peak blood lactate. However, as in an earlier study of sleep deprivation with male subjects (in which a decrease of treadmill maximal oxygen intake was observed), the formula of Dill and Costill (4) indicated the development of a substantial (11.6%) increase of estimated plasma volume percentage with corresponding decreases in hematocrit and red cell count. Possible factors sustaining maximal oxygen intake under the conditions of the present experiment include (1) maintained arousal of the subjects with no decrease in peak exercise ventilation or the related respiratory work and (2) use of a cycle ergometer rather than a treadmill test with possible concurrent differences in the impact of hematocrit levels and plasma volume expansion upon peak cardiac output and thus oxygen delivery to the working muscles.