Taking a large dose of creatine might help maintain healthy energy levels in certain brain areas when people stay awake all night, preventing the normal drop in brain energy that happens with sleep loss.
Scientific Claim
A single high dose of creatine (0.35 g/kg) may prevent the sleep deprivation-induced decline in cerebral phosphocreatine to inorganic phosphate ratio (PCr/Pi) in specific brain regions including the capsulo-thalamic areas and corpus callosum in young healthy adults undergoing 21 hours of sleep deprivation.
Source Excerpt
“Creatine prevented the SD-induced changes in PCr/Pi and pH level. The prevention effect was regionally most pronounced in Pi/31P by a decline versus placebo in capsulo-thalamic (right −8.5±2.8%, t43=−3.63, p43=0.001; left −9.6±2.8%, t43=−2.34, p43=0.001), right corpus callosum (−8.3±2.6%, t43=−3.26, p43=0.002) and increase in PCr/31P in the left medial motor (4.2±1.1%, t43=3.87, p43=0.0005) and left motor (5.7±1.3%, t43=4.44, p43=0.0001) region when pooled at all 3 time points”
Evidence from Studies
Supporting Studies
Single dose creatine improves cognitive performance and induces changes in cerebral high energy phosphates during sleep deprivation
The study measured cerebral metabolites using 31P-MRS and found that creatine prevented the normal decline in PCr/Pi ratio that occurs during sleep deprivation in specific brain regions, with statistically significant differences between creatine and placebo conditions.