After 21 hours without sleep, healthy young adults show a small decrease in brain energy reserves and a slight drop in brain pH, suggesting increased energy use and acid buildup; taking creatine before sleep deprivation partially reduces these changes.

Taking a specific dose of creatine monohydrate by mouth during a night of little sleep may help maintain faster thinking in language, logic, and math tasks, reduce feelings of tiredness, and help preserve normal energy-related chemistry in the brain.

Taking a specific dose of creatine while sleep-deprived is linked to a measurable drop in ATP-β levels in the brain, along with faster thinking and less tiredness.

During sleep deprivation, taking more creatine (0.35 g/kg) leads to slightly better cognitive performance than taking less (0.2 g/kg), but the benefit does not increase beyond a certain dose, suggesting the brain reaches a limit in how much creatine it can use under these conditions.

Taking 0.35 grams of creatine per kilogram of body weight during sleep deprivation improves cognitive performance, with the strongest effects occurring about 4 hours after taking it and lasting up to 9 hours, likely due to sustained changes in how the brain uses energy.