Creatine and sleep

Creatine is considered by athletes to be a miracle drug for increasing performance, muscle growth and regeneration. However, it is less well known that creatine can also have a positive effect on our sleep. Find out here what creatine is all about and why you and your sleep can benefit from a creatine supplement even if you are not an athlete.

Table of contents

1. creatine
2. What is creatine?
3. How does creatine work?
4. Creatine & Sleep
5. Creatine as a dietary supplement
6. side effects of creatine
7. Conclusion

1. Creatine & Sport

Creatine is known as an effective means of improving regeneration and building muscle and is often advertised as an effective dietary supplement for competitive and amateur athletes for the purpose of increasing strength and performance. For a long time, however, taking creatine supplements was considered unsafe, but numerous scientific studies have helped to establish creatine as a safe, performance-enhancing agent for promoting muscle growth and during intensive exercise.

What many people don’t know, however, is that creatine has many other effects on our body and can also have a lasting impact on our sleep.

2. What is creatine?

Creatine (Greek kreas: "flesh") is a natural organic acid that our body produces itself and can also be absorbed through food. It serves primarily as an energy supplier and is therefore stored to more than 90% in our muscle cells, where it is stored as an energy reserve to be activated and used during short-term, intensive exercise.

3. How does creatine work?

Physical performance improvement and muscle building

Basically, creatine provides the body with additional energy so that it can continue to perform despite physical and cognitive strain. The creatine stored in the muscle cells is activated during intense physical exertion precisely when the "normal" energy reserves are exhausted. It also helps the muscles to relax more quickly after the necessary tension. In this way, a well-filled creatine store can support the muscles in their function and increase physical performance over a short period of time, especially during exertion between 2 seconds and 2 minutes.

Creatine also has a long-term effect by influencing the metabolism and growth processes of the muscles and ensuring that more muscle mass is formed and muscle strength can increase.

Psychological: Cognitive performance improvement and regeneration

A sufficient energy supply is also very important for the functionality of our brain cells and the central nervous system, because the brain can use up to 20% of our body's total energy turnover. As in the body itself, creatine can also help in the brain to fill energy stores and protect cells from exhaustion. Various studies also show that creatine can improve cognitive brain functions (e.g. memory and intelligence), increase mental stress tolerance and delay mental fatigue, among other things.

4. Creatine & Sleep

How smartsleep-Founder and sleep researcher Dr. Markus Dworak was able to show in his scientific studies that the active ingredient creatine can also (or especially) have a positive influence on physiological processes during sleep.At night, our body relaxes, reduces energy consumption and, especially during deep sleep, collects new energy (in the form of the energy carrier ATP), which it needs for important regeneration and repair processes. These processes are disrupted, particularly when we lack sleep, the cells' energy stores are not sufficiently filled and the important regeneration is made more difficult.

Creatine now provides the body with additional energy and accelerates the replenishment of the energy reserves of our cells in the brain and muscles. This means that the body and mind are ready to perform again more quickly and can begin subsequent regeneration processes. Creatine as a dietary supplement can therefore help the body to start the important repair functions more quickly and to restore a healthy and rested state. Other scientific studies have also found improved regeneration through the intake of creatine when the body has less time to recover during sleep due to lack of sleep. And the test subjects' personal feeling of tiredness was also reduced by taking creatine.

Did you know that sleep and exercise have an exciting interaction and can have a positive effect on each other? this article you will learn how exercise promotes sleep.

5. Creatine as a dietary supplement

Our body produces small amounts of creatine itself and another part can be absorbed through the consumption of animal products (especially fish and meat). However, since we are able to store far more creatine than we produce or absorb ourselves, it can be useful, especially if you follow a vegan or vegetarian diet, to take additional creatine in the form of a dietary supplement in order to replenish the body's own creatine stores and provide more creatine. Today you can usually find creatine in capsule or powder form.

The dosage of creatine supplements depends on your diet, your physical condition and your goals, among other things. The body produces around 1-2 g of creatine itself and can store up to 5 g in total. A daily dose of 3-5 grams of creatine is considered safe and well tolerated by the European Food Safety Authority.

6. Side effects of creatine

In healthy people, no side effects are to be expected from additional intake of creatine. The substance is one of the best-researched nutritional supplements and is generally considered safe and well-tolerated in the recommended dose. However, too high a dosage of more than 20 grams per day can lead to stomach pain, diarrhea or vomiting. An overdose is not advisable anyway, as the body cannot store more than 5 grams of creatine per day and simply excretes the excess.

Danger: When you start taking creatine, you should make sure you drink enough fluids. Creatine binds and stores water in the muscles, which is why you should expect a slight weight gain if you take it regularly.

7. Conclusion

Creatine has established itself as an effective and safe supplement in competitive sports to get the most out of physical strength and performance. Due to its function as an energy supplier, creatine not only supports intensive sporting activity, but can also have a positive effect on regeneration during sleep.

• Creatine is the body's natural energy source, 90% of which is stored in muscle cells

• Creatine ensures short-term energy supply and thus promotes physical performance, muscle building and regeneration after intensive exercise.

• Creatine influences the energetic balance in the brain and promotes cognitive performance, brain function and stress resistance and also reduces fatigue.

• During sleep, creatine accelerates energy production and regeneration, thus reducing the need for sleep.

• A daily dose of 3 g to 5 g of creatine per day is considered safe and well tolerated.

Best regards and see you soon!