Pre-sleep milk-derived proteins do not impair sleep or recovery in elite female athletes.
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Health, Nutrition, and Food Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
- 2Institute of Sports Sciences & Medicine, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
- 3College of Education and Human Sciences, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA.
- 4School of Health Sciences, Discipline of Biokinetics, Exercise and Leisure Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
Abstract
Background
Sleep is essential for athlete recovery and performance, yet athletes frequently experience restricted or poor-quality sleep. Pre-sleep feeding (PSF) has emerged as a strategy to support recovery, but randomized, double-blinded, crossover trials comparing PSF macronutrient options on objective and subjective sleep outcomes in elite female athletes remain limited.Methods
Twenty-five National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I female athletes (18-25 years old) were recruited; 21 completed the trial. In a randomized, double-blinded, placebo controlled, crossover design conducted over 4-8 weeks, participants consumed four treatments for three consecutive nights each: 40 g casein protein (CAS; 160 kcal), 40 g α-lactalbumin protein (ALA; 160 kcal), 40 g carbohydrate (CHO; 160 kcal), and 40g of a placebo (PLA; 5 kcal), with a minimum three-day washout between conditions. Supplements were consumed ~2 h after the final meal and ~30 min before bedtime as the last caloric intake of the day. Objective outcomes were obtained from the WHOOP 4.0 device (total sleep time (TST), sleep onset latency (SOL), sleep efficiency (SE), resting heart rate (RHR), and heart rate variability (HRV)). Subjective outcomes were assessed each morning via questionnaires (subjective sleep quality (SSQ), subjective sleep onset latency (SSOL), and subjective recovery (SREC)). Nocturnal interstitial glucose was assessed via blinded continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in a subset (n = 6). Sleep and recovery variables were analyzed using one-way repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) to evaluate treatment effects across the four supplementation conditions. For CGM data, a two-way repeated-measures ANOVA was used to evaluate main effects of treatment and time, as well as the treatment × time interaction. Tukey's post hoc testing was used with significance set at p < 0.05.Results
No significant treatment effects were observed for TST, SOL, SE, RHR, or HRV (p > 0.05). TST ranged from 7.47-7.62 h, SE from 91.5-92.0%, RHR from 53.5-54.1 bpm, and HRV from 98.2-103.9 ms across conditions. No significant treatment effects were detected for SSQ, SSOL, or SREC (p > 0.05); SSQ ranged from 69-75%, SSOL from 16-20 min, and SREC from 61-66%. In the CGM sub-analysis, a main effect of time was observed for nocturnal glucose (p = 0.008), but no differences among treatments (p = 0.187) or a time × treatment interaction (p = 0.550) were detected.Conclusions
In NCAA Division I female athletes, three consecutive nights of pre-sleep ingestion of CAS, ALA, or CHO did not impair objective or subjective measures of sleep or recovery compared with PLA. These findings demonstrate that pre-sleep feeding, regardless of macronutrient type, can be incorporated without negatively affecting sleep quality or recovery metrics.Trial registration
ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: STUDY00004409).
Related
- Sport-specific differences in DXA-derived bone outcomes persist after adjustment for lean mass in competitive female athletes
- Antibodies targeting phage fiber and nozzle proteins impair Acinetobacter baumannii phage therapy by blocking infection and promoting immune clearance
- Female Athletes Are Half as Likely to Return to High-Risk Sports Compared With Male Athletes After Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: An Exploration of Return-to-Sport Outcomes Between Sexes
- Exploring the Impact of Ovarian Hormones on Cortical Drive and Quadriceps Performance in Uninjured Female Athletes
- Short-term Rhodiola rosea supplementation improves premenstrual symptoms, reaction time, and perceived exertion in female taekwondo athletes: a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial
BibTeX
@article{paterson2026presleep,
title = {{Pre-sleep milk-derived proteins do not impair sleep or recovery in elite female athletes.}},
author = {Kieran G P Paterson and Timothy D Griest and Elisa Angeles and Sadio P Fenner and Hannah K Eberhardt and Connor R McKay and Kendall L W Helms and Andelino Calderon and Matthew D Vukovich and Michael J Ormsbee},
journal = {Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1080/15502783.2026.2746899},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42897977},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Pre-sleep milk-derived proteins do not impair sleep or recovery in elite female athletes.
AU - Kieran G P Paterson
AU - Timothy D Griest
AU - Elisa Angeles
AU - Sadio P Fenner
AU - Hannah K Eberhardt
AU - Connor R McKay
AU - Kendall L W Helms
AU - Andelino Calderon
AU - Matthew D Vukovich
AU - Michael J Ormsbee
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/20
JO - Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition
DO - 10.1080/15502783.2026.2746899
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42897977
AB - Background Sleep is essential for athlete recovery and performance, yet athletes frequently experience restricted or poor-quality sleep. Pre-sleep feeding (PSF) has emerged as a strategy to support recovery, but randomized, double-blinded, crossover trials comparing PSF macronutrient options on objective and subjective sleep outcomes in elite female athletes remain limited.Methods Twenty-five National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I female athletes (18-25 years old) were recruited; 21 completed the trial. In a randomized, double-blinded, placebo controlled, crossover design conducted over 4-8 weeks, participants consumed four treatments for three consecutive nights each: 40 g casein protein (CAS; 160 kcal), 40 g α-lactalbumin protein (ALA; 160 kcal), 40 g carbohydrate (CHO; 160 kcal), and 40g of a placebo (PLA; 5 kcal), with a minimum three-day washout between conditions. Supplements were consumed ~2 h after the final meal and ~30 min before bedtime as the last caloric intake of the day. Objective outcomes were obtained from the WHOOP 4.0 device (total sleep time (TST), sleep onset latency (SOL), sleep efficiency (SE), resting heart rate (RHR), and heart rate variability (HRV)). Subjective outcomes were assessed each morning via questionnaires (subjective sleep quality (SSQ), subjective sleep onset latency (SSOL), and subjective recovery (SREC)). Nocturnal interstitial glucose was assessed via blinded continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in a subset (n = 6). Sleep and recovery variables were analyzed using one-way repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) to evaluate treatment effects across the four supplementation conditions. For CGM data, a two-way repeated-measures ANOVA was used to evaluate main effects of treatment and time, as well as the treatment × time interaction. Tukey's post hoc testing was used with significance set at p < 0.05.Results No significant treatment effects were observed for TST, SOL, SE, RHR, or HRV (p > 0.05). TST ranged from 7.47-7.62 h, SE from 91.5-92.0%, RHR from 53.5-54.1 bpm, and HRV from 98.2-103.9 ms across conditions. No significant treatment effects were detected for SSQ, SSOL, or SREC (p > 0.05); SSQ ranged from 69-75%, SSOL from 16-20 min, and SREC from 61-66%. In the CGM sub-analysis, a main effect of time was observed for nocturnal glucose (p = 0.008), but no differences among treatments (p = 0.187) or a time × treatment interaction (p = 0.550) were detected.Conclusions In NCAA Division I female athletes, three consecutive nights of pre-sleep ingestion of CAS, ALA, or CHO did not impair objective or subjective measures of sleep or recovery compared with PLA. These findings demonstrate that pre-sleep feeding, regardless of macronutrient type, can be incorporated without negatively affecting sleep quality or recovery metrics.Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov (Identifier: STUDY00004409).
SN - 1550-2783
ER -