We are currently looking for participants to take part in a research study looking at the effect of caffeine on endurance performance during sleep deprivation.
WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR?
- Recreationally active males (doing at least 3 h of running per week) between 18 and 50 years of age.
- Free of a history of cardiovascular problems, respiratory disorders, and neurological conditions, metabolic diseases, or have suffered a trunk or lower-limb, soft tissue (g. muscles, ligaments) or bone, injury or surgery in the last 3 months.
- Participants must also be non-smokers and classified as “good sleepers” via questionnaires.
WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH INVOLVE?
- 3 visits to School of Sport and Exercise Sciences Psychobiological Laboratory (SSES) located at Medway Building (University of Kent)
- Spend a night awake at SSES with an experimenter and plenty of entertainment options (TV, Netflix, videogames, internet, music, books, magazines, etc.)
- Take a caffeine or placebo capsule and run for 30 minutes at a fixed speed and perform a 30-min time trial.
In visit 1 you will be required to sleep at home as usual and you will arrive at 8am to the lab.
In Visits 2 and 3 you will be required to stay awake more than 24h. No naps will be allowed during the day and you will be required to arrive to the lab at 8pm. A researcher will stay with you the whole night in a room with diverse entertainment options (laptop, TV, video console, books, etc.)
All tests will start at 8am, and we can test any day of the week (weekends included). You will have a light breakfast and a caffeine/placebo pill in the lab before the start of the test. Your brain activity will be collected via EEG cap. You will be required to perform 3 cognitive tests in a computer. Then you will run 30 mins at a fixed speed and you will perform a 30-min time trial aiming to cover as much distance as possible. Usually tests will finish at 10am.
WHAT ARE THE POSSIBLE BENEFITS OF TAKING PART?
- Free assessment of your fitness level (VO2 max) and training zones guidance based on the result of your tests
- £100 Amazon voucher as a ‘compensation fee’ for your time
- The chance of being part of a research study that would potentially help us to develop new strategies to optimize the use of caffeine during ultra-endurance competitions.
INTERESTED? Please email: bm362@kent.ac.uk