Hypoxic Functional Training Improves Young Adults’ Sleep Quality And Exercise Performance When Acutely Entering High Altitude

PURPOSE: Hypoxic training is on rise for helping people living at sea-level to pre-acclimate the hypoxic environment. Therefore, this presented abstract aimed to formulate a hypoxic functional training program with more flexible movements and personalized intensity, in order to promote healthy young adults’ sleep quality and exercise performance after their acute arrival at the plateau. METHODS:21 healthy young adults (23 ± 3 years old, 38% female) were recruited and randomly separated into two groups, hypoxic functional training group (HTG, n = 12, 3 female) and control group (CG, n = 9, 5 female). After a 4-week intervention, the participants arrived at Garze, China (altitude: 3410 m) and resided there for 10 days, during which period their self-evaluated sleep quality (Pittsburgh sleep quality index, PSQI) and exercise performance (1000 m run, 30 m run timed separately, Illinois agility test, and so on were tested on the first, fifth, and tenth day. RESULTS: The statistical results showed that HTG had shorter subjective sleep latency (F = 7.072, p = 0.017) and lower PSQI scores (F = 6.729, p = 0.02) than CG, and HTG ran faster than CG in 1000 m test (F = 5.909, p = 0.028). Besides, there were significant time effect on the accelerating state of 30 m sprint (F = 4.681, p = 0.023) and physical agility (F = 10.16, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: These results reflected that hypoxia functional training could improve the subjective sleep quality and endurance performance when people from sea level acutely entered high altitude. - The time and group effects on the participants’ sleep and mobility Day1 Day5 Day10 HTG (N = 12) CG (N = 9) HTG (N = 12) CG (N = 9) HTG (N = 12) CG (N = 9) Subjective sleep latency (min) 15.5 ± 9.30 19.38 ± 10.73 16.91 ± 15.76 33.13 ± 16.38 15.18 ± 11.04 22.50 ± 11.73 Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index 3.50 ± 2.33 4.88 ± 1.96 3.36 ± 1.67 6.00 ± 2.24 2.55 ± 2.06 3.50 ± 1.66 Sleep Physical and Mental Scale 22.30 ± 5.40 27.88 ± 10.99 21.27 ± 5.74 29.50 ± 8.15 20.00 ± 7.08 29.63 ± 13.63 1000 m (s) 342.23 ± 49.54 408.32 ± 37.32 323.51 ± 55.05 385.08 ± 66.14 325.42 ± 47.87 379.57 ± 70.54 The initial 10 m of 30 m (s) 2.62 ± 0.46 2.68 ± 0.64 2.38 ± 0.44 2.33 ± 0.61 2.79 ± 1.08 2.78 ± 0.80 The total time of 30 m (s) 4.95 ± 0.23 5.07 ± 0.62 5.16 ± 0.31 4.76 ± 1.40 4.79 ± 0.54 5.22 ± 0.75 Illinois Agility Test (s) 20.42 ± 1.47 19.76 ± 1.74 20.45 ± 1.87 21.13 ± 2.23 19.35 ± 1.31 19.32 ± 1.47 Single-leg squatting against the wall (s) 193.11 ± 162.17 100.38 ± 72.53 119.00 ± 51.11 106.50 ± 38.52 101.43 ± 65.68 116.57 ± 23.49 Single-leg planking (s) 120.00 ± 72.16 83.00 ± 30.28 96.00 ± 47.15 66.50 ± 23.46 109.43 ± 51.49 86.43 ± 20.94