TOTAL SLEEP DEPRIVATION AND RECOVERY SLEEP AFFECT THE DIURNAL VARIATION OF AGILITY PERFORMANCE:THE GENDER DIFFERENCES MOHAMED ROMDHANI, 1,2 OMAR HAMMOUDA, 3,4 KHAWLA SMARI, 2,4 YASSINE CHAABOUNI, 5,6 KACEM MAHDOUANI, 5,6 TARAK DRISS, 3 AND NIZAR SOUISSI 1,2 1 National Observatory of Sports, Exercise Physiology Departement, Tunis, Tunisia; 2 High Institute of Sport and Physical Education Ksar-Said, Departement of Biology, Manouba University, Manouba, Tunisia; 3 Research Center on Sport and Movement (CeRSM), UFP STAPS, University of Paris Nanterre, France; 4 Research Unit, Molecular Bases of Human Pathology, UR12ES17, Faculty of Medicine of Sfax, Sfax University, Sfax, Tunisia 5 Department of Biochemistry, CHU Ibn Jazzar, Kairouan, Tunisia; and 6 Laboratory of Analysis, Treatment and Valorization of Pollutants of the Environment and Products (LATVEP), Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Monastir, Monastir, Tunisia ABSTRACT Romdhani, M, Hammouda, O, Smari, K, Chaabouni, Y, Mahdouani, K, Driss, T, and Souissi, N. Total sleep depriva- tion and recovery sleep affect the diurnal variation of agility performance: The gender differences. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000–000, 2018—This study aimed to investigate the effects of time-of-day, 24 and 36 hours of total sleep depri- vation (TSD), and recovery sleep (RS) on repeated-agility performances. Twenty-two physical education students (11 male and 11 female students) completed 5 repeated modified agility T-test (RMAT) sessions (i.e., 2 after normal sleep night [NSN] [at 07:00 and 17:00 hours], 2 after TSD [at 07:00 hours, i.e., 24-hour TSD and at 17:00 hours, i.e., 36-hour TSD], and 1 after RS at 17:00 hours). The RMAT index decreased from the morning to the afternoon after NSN (p , 0.05, d = 1.05; p , 0.01, d = 0.73) and after TSD (p , 0.001, d = 0.92; d = 1.08), respectively, for total time (TT) and peak time (PT). This finding indicates a diurnal variation in repeated agility, which persisted after TSD. However, the diurnal increase in PT was less marked in the female group after NSN (2.98 vs. 6.24%). Moreover, TT and PT increased, respectively, after 24-hour TSD (p , 0.001; d = 0.84, d = 0.87) and 36-hour TSD (p , 0.001, d = 1.12; p , 0.01, d = 0.65). Female participants’ PT was less affected by 24-hour TSD (1.76 vs. 6.81%) compared with male participants’ PT. After 36-hour TSD, the amount of decrease was not different between groups, which increased the diurnal amplitude of PT only for male participants. Total sleep deprivation suppressed the diurnal increase of PT and increased the diurnal amplitude of oral temperature only in women. Nevertheless, RS normal- ized the sleep-loss–induced performance disruption. Con- clusively, sleep loss and RS differently affect repeated-agility performance of men and women during the day. Sleep exten- sion postdeprivation could have potent restorative effect on repeated-agility performances, and female participants could extract greater benefits. KEY WORDS repeated agility, time-of-day, sleep loss, sleep extension, chronobiology, sex, difference INTRODUCTION S everal human performance components, such as short-term high-intensity performances, display diurnal variations with acrophase generally observed in the afternoon (12,46,47). These diurnal variations in performance could be influenced by prior sleep quantity and quality (12,46,47). Precompetitive stress, com- petitive sailing navigation, and ultra-triathlon, for example, can generate situations of total sleep deprivation (TSD). Reportedly, TSD has been shown to affect several aspects of human performance, ranging from disruption of mood (39), cognitive (30), aerobic (34), and short-term high-intensity per- formances (11,46,47), and immunity and several biochem- ical parameters (18,28,29). Interestingly, it has been shown that the effects of TSD on short-term performances could be time-of-day (TOD) dependent (46). Morning short-term performances were unaffected, whereas afternoon perform- ances declined after TSD, which resulted in decreased diur- nal variation (46). Certainly, after TSD, recovery sleep (RS) took place, which is a special sleep state and differs from normal sleep (37). It has been shown that the structure and the physiology of RS are gender dependent (3,16). In fact, the effectiveness Address correspondence to Mohamed Romdhani, romdhaniroma@ gmail.com. 00(00)/1–9 Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research Ó 2018 National Strength and Conditioning Association VOLUME 00 | NUMBER 00 | MONTH 2018 | 1 Copyright ª 2018 National Strength and Conditioning Association