Every week our coaches at Peak Fitness in Orem read the actual studies behind a popular training or nutrition claim and boil them down to what holds up and what to do with it. Here's No. 02.
What the research found
- Across 16 trials with 492 adults, creatine improved memory and processing speed compared with a placebo.
- Up all night? In sleep-deprivation studies, one big dose kept thinking sharper through 21 hours awake.
The protocol
- →Keep taking 3–5 g a day. Your brain may benefit too.
- →The sleep-study dose was about 28 g. That's a lab finding, not a protocol.
Honest caveat
The sleep studies are small (15 and 29 people), and the processing-speed evidence is still building. Promising, not proven.
Not medical advice. Have a medical condition? Talk to your doctor first.
Sources
- Xu et al. The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Front Nutr, 2024
- Gordji-Nejad et al. Single dose creatine improves cognitive performance and induces changes in cerebral high energy phosphates during sleep deprivation. Sci Rep, 2024
- Gordji-Nejad et al. Single-dose creatine reduces sleep deprivation-induced deterioration in cognitive performance. Nutrients, 2026