Thread: When sleep is not an option?

meth

Naps are great. I don't know what the current scientific literature says, but in the past i have read that your body is quite adaptable in terms of reaching REM sleep...IOW under normal circumstances (with the average 6-8 hour block of sleep) your body goes through the phases of sleep + REM in about 1.5 hours. When this block is not possible and sleeping is done in smaller blocks, your body adapts by reaching REM sleep faster. This adaptation takes time and will probably differ with the individual, but from what i know, it does happen. So go ahead and take that power nap when you can, it can't possibly hurt.

Now as far as your training goes, with such a rigorous schedule, why not try and cut something down. You're going to get rundown and overtrain eventually. Constant stimulant use is not the answer, and can have negative effects on adrenal glands in the long term.

Try doing a total body 2-3 times a week, or go with upper/lower/total. Or skip a couple of sessions of cardio with the crew team in the morning and hit it after your workout at night, i'm sure your coach won't mind as long as you explain you are still getting your training in.

Bottom line, if you feel so rundown now, imagine whats going to happen if you keep this up for months? You will shut down eventually.

I'd wait for P-funk to get to this and see what he says (maybe try PM'ing him if he doesn't get here in the next day or two), he'll have more advice for you.

I am a firm believer in the idea that nothing GIVES you energy. It just creates an imbalance in your energy system. Well of course we know it can't be created or destroyed. Caffeine and its cousins just make your adrenal system stimulate. Of course this is not a good thing over too much time.

I don't see an advantage possible. You might get somewhat used to it but its just not a good situation.

I agree naps are good. Take in good nutrition and don't stay in the gym too long.

Originally Posted by Yanick

Naps are great. I don't know what the current scientific literature says, but in the past i have read that your body is quite adaptable in terms of reaching REM sleep...IOW under normal circumstances (with the average 6-8 hour block of sleep) your body goes through the phases of sleep + REM in about 1.5 hours. When this block is not possible and sleeping is done in smaller blocks, your body adapts by reaching REM sleep faster. This adaptation takes time and will probably differ with the individual, but from what i know, it does happen. So go ahead and take that power nap when you can, it can't possibly hurt.

Now as far as your training goes, with such a rigorous schedule, why not try and cut something down. You're going to get rundown and overtrain eventually. Constant stimulant use is not the answer, and can have negative effects on adrenal glands in the long term.

Try doing a total body 2-3 times a week, or go with upper/lower/total. Or skip a couple of sessions of cardio with the crew team in the morning and hit it after your workout at night, i'm sure your coach won't mind as long as you explain you are still getting your training in.

Bottom line, if you feel so rundown now, imagine whats going to happen if you keep this up for months? You will shut down eventually.

I'd wait for P-funk to get to this and see what he says (maybe try PM'ing him if he doesn't get here in the next day or two), he'll have more advice for you.

ive seen peoples eyes twitching in a matter of minutes after closing them on several occasions...


furthermore
ive survived on 5-6 hours of sleep a night for long periods of time

Originally Posted by workhard1

I know how important rest is. I realize you don't grow in the gym, you grow at home and while you rest. Also, you have to be well rested to give your full effort in the gym. But for a college student with a pretty vigorous course schedule this can be prove to be very difficult. I usually am able to get to sleep by 12 or 1 (once i finish all my damn reading) but have to get up 1t 5:45 every morning to go run with my crew team. Then I usually get my lifitng in later in the day around 4 or 5 pm. When living on this only 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night doing cardio 5 days a week in the morning and lifting in the gym 4 times a week what can I do to give myself some kind of advantage? There is not really any way I am going to be able to get more sleep than I currently am.

I was thinking of starting some pre-workout supp (like superpump-250) or maybe just have a nice medium sized cup of coffee before my lifting each day to save money. Hopefully that will help to make sure my energy is up for my workout, but that does not address the lack of rest/recovery issue.

Would small naps be an effective technique for give my body some rest? If I find time during the day sometimes I am able to take a 30 minute to 1 hour nap. Does the body require you to reach REM sleep to start the recovery process or does the body treat all sleep the same?

Again, I realize that just sleeping longer at night would be the best option to me, but there is just no way I can do that, keep my grades up, and keep making all of my workouts and other important engagements

It all depends on your body, and your goals.

Insufficient sleep causes all sorts of cognitive ability impairments.

Here is a good list of cognitive abilities.

1. Alternating Attention: the ability to shift the focus of attention quickly.
2. Auditory Processing Speed: the time it takes to perceive relevant auditory stimuli, encode, and interpret it and then make an appropriate response.
3. Central Processing Speed: the time it takes to encode, categorize, and understand the meaning of any sensory stimuli.
4. Conceptual Reasoning: includes concept formation, abstraction, deductive logic, and/or inductive logic.
5. Divided Attention: the capability to recognize and respond to multiple stimuli at the same time.
6. Fine Motor Control: the ability to accurately control fine motor movements.
7. Fine Motor Speed: the time it takes to perform a simple motor response.
8. Focused (or Selective) Attention: the ability to screen out distracting stimuli.
9. Response Inhibition: the ability to avoid automatically reacting to incorrect stimuli.
10. Sustained Attention: the ability to maintain vigilance.
11. Visuospatial Classification: the ability to discriminate between visual objects based on a concept or rule.
12. Visuospatial Sequencing: the ability to discern the sequential order of visual objects based on a concept or rule.
13. Visual Perception: the ability to perceive fixed visual objects.
14. Visual Processing Speed: the time it takes to perceive visual stimuli.
15. Visual Scanning: the ability to find a random visual cue.
16. Visual Tracking: the ability to follow a continuous visual cue.
17. Working Memory: the ability to hold task-relevant information while processing it.


Now, these abilities are just like muscular abilities. You use them or you lose them. Long term sleep deprivation will cause you to become worse and worse at these things. You might not realize it, but you can become duller and duller.

There is no substitute for quality sleep. Stimulants like the ones you mentioned will help with some cognitive abilities like alertness and can help with energy levels, but you will still be dull or suffer from various mental deficiencies.

Also, lack of sleep will hurt your gains because it cuts down on your recovery time. We get stronger when we sleep, not when we workout.

Originally Posted by Merkaba

I am a firm believer in the idea that nothing GIVES you energy. It just creates an imbalance in your energy system. Well of course we know it can't be created or destroyed. Caffeine and its cousins just make your adrenal system stimulate. Of course this is not a good thing over too much time.

I agree with this fully.. I laugh whenever you see "energy" drinks with zero calories... what is a calorie a measure of again? haha

I think you may do well by taking naps and maybe cutting down on the cardio to maybe 3 days a week and do some hardcore intervals on those 3 days. That way you get a couple more days where you can sleep in.. but since you run with other people this may not be an option. You'd have to run it by them I guess.