I have been trying to locate some information on the effects (if any) of too much sleep on physical performance. For example, I have noticed over the years that during the week I can wake up and work out almost immediately and feel fine…generally on 6-8 hours of sleep. However, on the weekends, when I have a tendency to sleep in an extra hour or two, I feel horrendous when I go to workout. My performance is often much more labored, my muscles feel tight, tired and I build up lactic acid much faster…everything about it generally sucks a giant suck. In fact, if I want it to be productive, I usually have to wait until much later in the day (this doesn’t help if a race is in the middle of the morning). I guess the simple answer would be to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day…but I was wondering if anybody knew of a verifiable biological reason why I feel so cruddy after getting more sleep…I thought sleep was supposed to help performance not hurt it??
I read some stuff about sleeping and basically what counts is to wake up at the end of a cycle (between 1h30 to 2h30 depending on people)…so most people need xxx hours but it is also important to wake up at the end of a cycle not during a sleep cycle…if you add one hour and you wake up before the end of that cycle that could screw up your sleep.
Do you think the cycle period is consistent every night. For instance, can a person say that their cycle is always 1’40’? How would a person determine their cycle?
definitely agree with Francois on this one: it’s not too hard to determine your ‘period’, just go for a nap, if you fall asleep and wake up later on it’s usually a good approximation of how long it is for you…
I went for a nap after my race this morning and I slept four around 3 hours, which jibes fairly well with me assuming my sleep periods are 1:30 or so.
Sometimes if I’m going to bed late I’ll stay up a bit later to avoid waking up in the middle of one and it seems to work quite well.
Keep a log. You’ll have to lose the alarm clock for awhile, I think.
Take note of how long you sleep until you wake up naturally (not interrupted by noise, dog, spouse, kids, whatever). You’re looking for a common denominator- if you wake up after 720, 630, 720, 540, 720, 720, and 630 minutes on successive nights, you’re sleep cycle is probably 90 minutes. (which is typical)
Or at least that’s what my google search said. This is a good topic, thanks for bringing it up.
I would also buy Francois explaination. Anyway, the trick on weekends is to wake up at the same hour you do every day and then sleep after your first workout.
A nap just after a bike ride by dawn does wonders and you will be flying on the late workout
that’s probably what I will end up doing. I really do like sleeping in…which is 8am for me…but if getting up at my normal time is what it takes, then I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet and do it. I really like taking naps on the weekends…but this means I’ll just have to make sure i get one.
I’m sure that i’m not getting enough sleep during the week. Unfortunately, my problem is getting to sleep, not necessarily staying asleep. I refuse to take ambien every night.
