National Library website: "Electrobrain stimulation improves physiological and psychological response, response ability and sleep efficiency of athletes with poor sleep quality"
- Aug 1, 2025
- 2 min read
Paper abstract ~
Athletes often have poor sleep quality before the game, which can stabilize mood and improve sports performance. This randomized controlled study explores the effects of transcranial electrical stimulation (CES) on the physiological, psychological, response ability and sleep quality of athletes with poor sleep quality before the game. The study subjects were athletes with poor sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Scale Score > 5 points) and who had participated in the competition for less than 2 months. They were divided into CES group (n = 20, age = 21.55±2.26 years) and placebo group (n = 20, age = 21.05±1.46 years). The former received CES treatment for 2 weeks and the latter received sham CES treatment for 2 weeks. We conducted biochemical analysis, simple reaction time tests, select reaction time tests, emotional state scales, heart rate variability (HRV), and activity recorders to measure results before and after the intervention. The results showed that there was no significant difference in blood urea nitrogen, creatine phosphate, testosterone, cortisol and saliva pH between and within the group (p > 0.05). Negative emotional states (i.e., anger, tension, and depression) and selection response time were significantly reduced in the CES group (p < 0.05), and anger, tension, and depression decreased from 0.36 ± 0.45 (95% CI = 0.16-0.55), 1.62 ± 0.97 (95% CI = 1.19-2.04), and 1.67 ± 1.06 (95% CI = 1.20-2.13) to 0.11 ± 0.20 (95% CI = 0.02-0.19, p = 0.03), 1.12 ± 0.74 (95% CI = 0.79-1.44, p = 0.04), and 0.81 ± 0. 0.75 (95% CI = 0.48-1.13, p = 0.001). In addition, the selection reaction time decreased from 420.85 ± 41.22 ms (95% CI = 402.78-438.91) to 399.90 ± 36.71 ms (95% CI = 383.81-415.98, p = 0.04), and this was also observed in the CES group. For HRV and sleep activity measurements, the low-frequency (LF)/high-frequency (HF) ratio in the CES group changed from 1.80 ± 1.39 (95% CI = 1.19-2.40) to 1.21 ± 0.73 (95% CI = 0.89-1.53, p = 0.10), and the sleep efficiency decreased from 87.94 ± 6.76% (95% CI = 84.97-90.90) to 81.75 ± 9.62% (95% CI = 77.53-85.96, p = 0.02). After the trial, LF/HF was changed between the CES group and the placebo group (p < 0.05). However, the sleep efficiency decreased in the placebo group ( p<0.05). However, we found that during the study, the regression line decline in sleep efficiency was smaller when using CES. CES intervention can reduce negative emotions, improve selection response time, enhance parasympathetic and sympathetic activities imbalance, and slow down sleep efficiency. Nevertheless, for athletes with poor sleep quality before the game, the application of CES has little impact on psychological response, responsiveness and sleep efficiency.