According to a study, a high dose of creatine improves brain performance in the short term during sleep deprivation. In the experiment, 15 adults performed significantly better in tests during a sleepless night if they had previously received creatine. However, study leader Ali Gordjinejad from the Jülich Research Center warns against trying this out yourself.

This is a very good, further study that proves that creatine works in principle, comments Peter Young, sleep expert at the German Society for Neurology. However, the study did not examine long-term learning success. Sleep deprivation not only reduces brain performance, but also damages the cardiovascular system.

The substance creatine (not to be confused with the keratin in hair and fingernails) is produced in the body and is primarily absorbed through fish and meat. Many athletes use them to increase muscle growth. But it also plays an important role in the brain.

In the study, eight women and seven men between the ages of 20 and 28 were kept awake overnight and had to solve small tasks, such as remembering word pairs or doing math. Everyone was given creatine one night and a dummy drug another.

Result: From just the third hour after taking creatine, there was a positive effect on brain metabolism and cognitive performance. It lasted up to nine hours, the end of the study period. In particular, processing performance and short-term memory have improved, the team writes in the journal “Scientific Reports”.

Effect like refilled fuel

The researchers used special magnetic resonance spectroscopy to observe how sleep deprivation and creatine changed brain metabolism. Lack of sleep reduced the amount of a creatine compound (creatine phosphate) in the brain that is important for energy supply, says Gordjinejad. This decrease was prevented by administering a high dose of creatine. "The fuel no longer decreased, but was replenished."

According to Gordjinejad, various studies have already reported improved cognitive performance after long-term creatine administration, for example in older people or vegetarians, both of whom often have a creatine deficiency. What is new is that even healthy people in a stressed state - such as when sleep deprived - can benefit briefly in terms of their cognitive performance.

“Of course it’s best if you get enough sleep,” says Gordjinejad. However, creatine could perhaps be of interest to people who are given unexpected tasks and then have to work until the morning, such as firefighters. However, there must first be further studies that demonstrate an effect even in smaller doses of a maximum of 4 to 5 grams.

For the time being, he warns against taking high doses, as high doses of creatine can put a strain on the kidneys and cause other health problems. "However, if future studies demonstrate an increase in cognitive performance even at lower doses, creatine could become a serious competitor to coffee on long work nights." In the study, 0.35 grams of creatine was given per kilo of body weight - that would be 28 grams for a person weighing 80 kilograms.

No application yet

The results are exciting, but it is still far too early for application, said Young. Sleep deprivation is not just about brain performance, it is also a physically relevant injury. The cardiovascular system remains under constant stress, which can increase the risk of diseases such as stroke, high blood pressure and heart attack. In addition, the study only examined short-term effects and not long-term learning success, such as whether Latin vocabulary can still be reproduced the next day. “You need sleep to consolidate learning content,” emphasizes Young, who is also an advisory board member of the German Brain Foundation.

Ulrich Ettinger from the University of Bonn commented on the analysis that the study was methodologically well done and the effects were promising. "If the findings are confirmed, one-time or perhaps occasional use of creatine would be indicated for acute sleep deprivation." However, the results would first have to be replicated with more test subjects and lower doses. In a brain performance study conducted by his team, negative side effects of creatine occurred even at significantly lower doses, but given over a longer period of time. "Overall, despite these exciting results, it is still questionable whether the use of creatine for brain performance can ever be fully recommended."

Online edition of the study information from the consumer advice center on creatine communication from April 23, 2024 Ettinger study