Effects of caffeine supplementation on post-exercise recovery: a systematic review and three-level meta-analysis of perceptual, functional performance, physiological, and sleep outcomes
Study Details
This systematic review and meta-analysis included 17 studies, with 16 contributing 120 effect sizes, examining caffeine’s effects on perceptual, functional, physiological and sleep recovery after exercise 🔍
Here are the key findings ⬇️
Key Findings
💪 Caffeine produced a small improvement in functional performance during recovery (g = −0.21)
⚠️ However, this may reflect a temporary ergogenic effect rather than faster recovery of the muscle itself
⏱️ When assessments within 1 h post-exercise were removed, the functional benefit became smaller and was no longer statistically significant
😣 Caffeine did not clearly improve perceptual recovery, including soreness, pain or fatigue (g = −0.16)
🩸 It also did not improve physiological recovery, including CK, LDH, myoglobin and oxidative-stress markers (g = −0.10)
😴 Sleep showed the opposite pattern: caffeine was associated with poorer post-exercise sleep recovery (g = 0.75)
🌙 Sleep outcomes included total sleep time, sleep efficiency, sleep onset latency, nocturnal awakenings and subjective sleep quality
📊 Effects differed significantly across recovery domains, reinforcing that “recovery” should not be treated as one single outcome
☕ Dose, ingestion timing, recovery time and exercise type did not clearly modify the effects, although these analyses were underpowered
📚 Evidence certainty was moderate for functional and physiological recovery, low for sleep and very low for perceptual recovery
⚠️ The sleep analysis contained only 4 studies, while both the functional and sleep findings were sensitive to some analytical assumptions
Conclusion
Caffeine may help athletes maintain performance when they need to perform again while still fatigued, but it should not be viewed as accelerating recovery; when used later in the day, any short-term performance benefit needs to be weighed against the potential cost to sleep ✅
Reference
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2026.1960237/full
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