Disrupted sleep is the most common form of sleep deprivation in travellers, shift workers, athletes the night before important competitions and among parents of infants. The influence of partial sleep loss on muscle strength might differ according to the time of testing on the following day. This study was therefore designed to assess the interaction between the effects of partial sleep loss and time of day on muscle strength in females. Eight sedentary eumenorrheic females (mean +/- SD; age 30 +/- 6 years, height 1.62 +/- 0.06 m and body mass 67 +/- 5.0 kg) took part in the study, in a counter-balanced design. Measurements of muscle strength were carried out at 06:00 and 18:00 hours after the one control night (no sleep loss) and the one night of partial sleep loss, during menses. Muscle strength measures included isokinetic (at 1.05, 3.14 rad s(-1); 90 degrees range of motion) and isometric peak torque (at 60 degrees of knee flexion) of knee extensors and. exors (dominant leg). In addition, isometric force of knee extensors with super-imposed electrical twitches (50 Hz, 250 V, 200 mu s pulse width) was measured using the same procedure in order to control for motivation. Rectal temperature was measured during the 30 min before muscle strength measurements. Partial sleep loss consisted of allowing 2.5 h sleep (between 03:00 and 05:30 h), whilst in the control condition (no sleep loss) subjects retired between 22:30 and 23:30 h, rising at 05:30 hours. All measurements were conducted at just one phase of the menstrual cycle (menses) to prevent any masking effect due to different phases of the menstrual cycle. In both conditions ( with and without partial sleep loss) a diurnal variation was observed in peak torque of knee. exors at 1.05 (F-1,F-7 = 5.5, p < 0.05) and 3.14 rad s(-1) (F-1,F-7 = 8.0, p < 0.05); values at 18:00 hours were 4.5 and 5.9% higher than at 06:00 hours, respectively. No significant diurnal variation was observed for the other muscle strength measures. No significant effect of partial sleep loss or interaction effect (sleep x time of day) was observed for muscle strength measures. However, the performance rhythms were in phase with the circadian rhythm in rectal temperature. Partial sleep deprivation over one night did not have any adverse effect on maximal muscle strength, nor on diurnal variations of muscle strength indices. As the effect of time of day was observed with some of the muscle strength measures, it is suggested that, in designing future studies using females, the control of time of day is essential.
