Melatonin, Caffeine, or Their Combination: Effects on Sleep, Performance, Perceived Exertion in a Placebo-Controlled Crossover Study
Nourhène Mahdi, Slaheddine Delleli, Khouloud Ben Maaoui, Arwa Jebabli, Juan Del Coso, Hamdi Chtourou, Luca Paolo Ardigò, Ibrahim Ouergui · 2026
Read Melatonin, Caffeine, or Their Combination: Effects on Sleep, Performance, Perceived Exertion in a Placebo-Controlled Crossover Study by Nourhène Mahdi, Slaheddine Delleli, Khouloud Ben Maaoui, Arwa Jebabli, Juan Del Coso, Hamdi Chtourou, Luca Paolo Ardigò, Ibrahim Ouergui (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13165432.txt.
Description
Nourhène Mahdi and co-authors run a 2026 trial on how melatonin, caffeine, and the two together affect sleep, effort, and exercise output in trained men. Melatonin aids sleep and recovery, while caffeine lifts alertness and performance, and athletes often use both, yet their interplay was little studied. Each volunteer passed through four conditions in a blinded crossover design.
The arms split by night and morning dosing: placebos both times, caffeine only in the morning, melatonin only at night, or melatonin at night with caffeine next morning. An hour after the morning dose, the men ran a short shuttle test. Blood before and after exercise tracked muscle damage and inflammation markers, and heart rate and felt exertion were logged. Sleep was checked on the nights in question. The design isolates each drug and their pairing in one clean sweep.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Nourhène Mahdi, Slaheddine Delleli, Khouloud Ben Maaoui, Arwa Jebabli, Juan Del Coso, Hamdi Chtourou, Luca Paolo Ardigò, Ibrahim Ouergui |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 41 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |