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This has been on my mind for a few years: when people use an altitude tent to achieve low O2 environent for sleeping, they need to sleep for longer to achieve similar recovery.
I'm wondering if the reverse could also be true. if sleeping in a high O2 environment, can one get better quality out of the sleep time, or sleep for less to achieve the same effects as normal?
Sleeping is such a time sink. Would filling my bedroom with as many plants as possible mean that I don't need as much sleep time?
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HH: Sep 7, 19 5:42
I don't know if more O2 would increase sleep benefits, but I am aware that some athletes will actually train with oxygen so that they can push out higher watts/pace than they would at their natural elevations. I don't know how effective it is, but I've seen a few YouTube videos where this was done. So I guess it's kind of the opposite of what you posted, but hopefully interesting none the less.
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jhammond: Sep 7, 19 5:58
Atmospheric oxygen is approximately 20% and the HIGHLY oxygenated tissues of your body are roughly 4%. I doubt a hyperoxic environment would increase that much. Besides, too much oxygen is toxic anyway and would create significant pro-oxidant stress on the body.
I'll need to check my old textbooks but I think the main thing is blood /haemoglobin saturation which is close to 100% at rest and only at vo2max levels does it tail off to 97% (check the actual values). So more blood cells (EPO) allow more oxygen to be used but just adding more O2 makes little difference unless your beyond the redline
That makes total sense as to why my OP speculation wouldn't work.
Yeah, I'd say there might be some merit to your hypothesis *if* you check your SPO2 during the night and find it below 100%, which is definitely possible. Any newer Garmin with a built in SPO2 meter does this automatically, and most people are something below 100% even at sea level.
That said, adding plants to your room won't help increase your O2 content enough to matter. You'd need to use an altitude tent and an actual oxygen generator rather than the de-oxygen generator used for altitude tents. These are commonly available, though. You'd need to research or experiment with how much is safe, and I'd definitely only do it in cycles and stop some amount of time before a race.
I'd think there might seriously be advantages to this for someone training in a life situation where sleep was artificially limited (ie. you have a baby to take care of and are training too), but hard to say for sure without testing it.
--Donnie