High doses of creatine — about 25 to 30 grams — could help with sleeplessness, a study has found. A 2024 study by researchers at Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) in Germany asked 15 adults aged 20 to 28 to stay awake for 21 hours. They were then given a large dose of creatine and tested on cognitive performance. On some tests, including short-term memory and processing capacity, they scored higher than when well-rested.
What the study found
Dr Ali Gordji-Nejad, who ran the study, says: “The results suggest a single but high dose of creatine enhances thinking capacity and causes changes in the brain’s energy reserves during sleep deprivation.” The findings indicated a potential game changer for those who have to keep sharp with little sleep: surgeons, soldiers, new parents and so on.
The study’s dose is far above what most creatine users take. Bodybuilders usually draw the line at 20 to 25 grams for just a few days, a period called the “loading phase” when muscles swell due to creatine molecules pulling in water. They then maintain this bulk by taking five grams a day. The recommendation for normal people is only two to five grams a day.
How creatine works
The body naturally produces one or two grams of creatine every day. This helps to recycle ATP [adenosine triphosphate] — the molecule used for fuel. Natural creatine stores sit at about 70 per cent, so topping them up makes bodily fuel use more effective. While five grams per day is considered the optimal dose to saturate muscles, studies such as this one in Germany have been exploring larger doses needed to pass the blood-brain barrier and saturate the brain.
To ingest 30 grams of creatine naturally would involve eating six to seven kilograms of raw beef. Cooked, it would take up to 10kg: either 30 steaks or 44 burgers in one sitting. The writer struggled to consume all 24 radically large pills bought for the experiment, each containing 1.25 grams of the powdered supplement.
Side effects and warnings
According to the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), creatine is the safest sports supplement ever tested. The writer reported that his fog lifted a couple of hours after taking the pills, with no sense of tiredness and far more mental agility than usual.
But there are unpleasant side effects for such large doses, and it is unequivocally not a replacement for sleep. Neither The Standard nor the writer endorses its use in this way. Although it might make you feel better as a one-off now and again, creatine does not prevent other negative effects of sleep deprivation, including a build-up of metabolic waste, impaired memory consolidation and hormone imbalances. The powder also tastes like chalk. Yet if the price of occasionally buying a few hours of borrowed wakefulness is mega-dosing on creatine, the writer is glad to have the option — and gladder still to sleep when he can.
