NCT07466732

Effects of Caffeine Ingestion on Morning Cognitive and Muscle Repeated Sprint Performance in Males

Effects of Caffeine Ingestion on Morning Cognitive and Muscle Repeated Sprint Performance in Males. Where a Standardized Approach Has Been Employed

• Status: Enrolling By Invitation
• Phase: EARLY_Phase 1
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 15 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Liverpool John Moores University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 35 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Athletes often compete in the morning when they are biologically weaker; normally in competition heats or quarterfinals to qualify for the finals scheduled in the evening. Some athletes may even choose to perform at submaximal levels in these qualifying rounds, especially when they are expected to perform multiple times in the same day (such as weightlifting at the Olympic Games). Gross muscular performance such as power output or force production is greater in the evening than the morning (\~3-14% variation). Similarly, time-trial performance and repeated sprint performance (RSP; a good measure of performance in team sport) is \~3 and 5 % greater in the evening than the morning. The reason for this daily variation in performance is attributed to central factors (such as the body clock), as well as motivational and peripheral factors, including higher core and muscle temperatures in the evening compared to the morning. The body clock located within the anterior hypothalamus consists of a group of neurons known as suprachiasmatic nuclei, which are responsible for controlling the rhythm of core temperature. This 'master clock' has an endogenous period (\~24.2 h) slightly longer than the 24-h solar day; therefore, must be entrained by time cues (zeitgebers) to remain in sync with the environment, of these the light-dark cycle is the most powerful in humans. The most efficient nutritional ergogenic is caffeine. Recently caffeine has been investigated to reduce the negative influence of diurnal variations on repeated-sprint ability test (10 × 6 s cycle sprints, with 30 s of rest) at 60 min after ingestion of either 5 mg·kg-1 or placebo. A recent study reported that caffeine supplementation did not prevent the reduction in performance in the morning. However, placebo effect can be 3-5% and hence the use of a No-pill condition would ensure that any placebo effect is accounted for and that the true potential effect of caffeine can be established. To the best of our knowledge, no study has yet investigated a) caffeine (300 mg), NoPill or Placebo (300 mg dextrose) effects on cognitive and physiological morning performance.

Conditions

• Caffeine
• Placebo - Control
• No Pill

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
DRUG	Caffeine	300mg of of caffeine anhydrous in 3 capsules similar to PLACEBO in size and weight
OTHER	Placabo	3 capsules of PLACEBO similar to caffeine condition in size and weight
OTHER	No Pill	No capsules were given

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-12-08
• Primary completion: 2026-03-25
• Completion: 2026-03-25
• First posted: 2026-03-12
• Last updated: 2026-03-13

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United Kingdom