Aim The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of dynamic stretching on repeated sprints and jump performances after one night of three hours of sleep deprivation.

Methods Ten judo athletes (age: 22.4 ± 1.8 years; height: 172.5 ± 5.1 cm; body-mass: 67.4 ± 3.4 kg) voluntarily participated to the study. They performed four test sessions: Without stretching (WS) or after a dynamic stretching (DS) either after a normal sleep night (NSN) or a partial sleep deprivation night (PSD). For the NSN, the sleep duration was between 22:30 h and 06:00 h. For the PSD, the sleep duration was between 22:30 h and 03:00 h. Test sessions were performed in a random order with a recovery period of at least 48 h in-between. During each session, after 5-min warm-up, participants performed 8 min of DS for the DS session or they were in a rest position for 8 min during the WS session. Then after 3 min they performed the repeated sprints and jump test. The test consisted of sprint 6 × 2 × 12.5 m every 25 s with 180° change of direction. During the recovery period, participants had to decelerate in 10 m, perform a counter movement jump (CMJ), and then to jog and return to the initial starting point. The best (BT) and the mean time (MT) were recorded with photoelectric cells (BROWER timing Systems; precision ∼ 0.01s) and the best and the mean CMJ were recorded using an Optojump device (Microgate, Bolzano, Italy). The DS consisted to perform 5 lower body exercises for 4 sets on a distance of 20 m with a recovery period of 20 s in-between. Data were analysed using a two-way ANOVA [2 (sleep condition) × 2 (warm-up)].

Results For the BT and the MT, the results showed that there was no-significant difference between NSN and PSD after both WS and DS. However, BT and MT were significantly lower after DS in comparison with WS during the PSD (p < 0.05). For the repeated jump performances, there were no-significant effects of sleep condition and warm-up. Likewise, the interaction sleep condition × warm-up was not significant.

Conclusion PSD of 3 hours has no-significant effect on judo athletes’ repeated short-term maximal performances. DS after a PSD night could improve sprinting times during a repeated sprints exercise; however, DS has no effect on jumping performance during the repeated jump exercise.