Effects of sleep deprivation on anaerobic exercise-induced changes in auditory brainstem evoked potentials.

Background: The present study was designed to assess how anaerobic exercise affects auditory brainstem response (ABR) parameters, and whether one night of sleep deprivation could alter these possible exercise-induced changes in ABRs.

Methods: Seven healthy, audiologically normal male students (mean age 22.4 +/- 1.0 years) participated in the study. All subjects underwent anaerobic Wingate test for three times: (i) baseline, (ii) following a full-night of habitual sleep and (iii) following one night of sleep deprivation. ABR measurements were performed before and after the second and the third Wingate tests. Oral body temperatures were recorded at the beginning of all ABR measurements.

Results: The latencies of wave III and V significantly shortened by anaerobic loading performed in the day after habitual sleep (4.13 +/- 0.10 versus 4.01 +/- 0.17 ms, P<0.02; and 5.84 +/- 0.26 versus 5.65 +/- 0.23 ms, P<0.03, respectively). One night of total sleep deprivation shortened pre-exercise latencies and altered exercise-induced changes in ABRs.

Conclusion: The findings obtained in the present study show that acute anaerobic exercise is effective on ABR wave latencies independent from body temperature changes, and sleep deprivation has some modulatory effects on exercise-induced changes in ABR.