I used to run long distance back in my salad (younger) days. I read books and magazines about running and running performance. I remember reading something back in the 1980's about how sleep deprivation did not affect running performance.
However, here is an article about recent research showing small reductions in performance of elite cyclists with voluntary sleep restriction to 4 hours per night for 3 days. The researchers measured energy expenditure, maximal aerobic power, and time to exhaustion. However, I don't see any data about actual cycling performance such as time to complete a course, etc. Therefore, I am not sure if sleep restriction really impacts elite cyclists. I know that not getting enough sleep lowered my motivation to run the next day!
