What do you do to calm the nerves and get a good sleep the night before a race ??
A fifth of Jack and a few Oxycontins.
I can’t tell you because my wife would kill me. nudge-nudge, wink-wink
I really hope people have some good suggestions. The night before Racine Half IM I was in bed at 8:30 and the wife and kids were asleep in the hotel and I was till wide awake at 11:30…I dread the night sleep before IMOO. Please help
not really a direct answer to your question, but I try to make sure I get a good night’s sleep two nights before the race. (i.e. friday night to saturday morning, if i’m racing on sunday). i usually have to get up too early on race day to even pretend that i’ve slept well.
that said, i’m curious what advice other folks here have.
-charles
Fat chance! I sometimes sleep as much as two hours the night before a race. Fortunately, that means I never oversleep and miss my start…
Critical sleep nights are -2 & -3. Night before doesn’t really matter.
I can’t tell you because my wife would kill me. nudge-nudge, wink-wink
You and your wife must have been in the hotel room next to mine at one of my races earlier this year.
Chris
I usually have a couple of beers. Not more. It usually helps, and I typically sleep pretty well. Given that I only sleep 5 or so hours per night, I try to catch up on sleep the last couple of weeks before.
For me, the biggest problem is at races I travel to. I need dark and quiet to sleep. If I get that, I’m fine. If not, forget it.
Not really a direct answer to your question, but I try to make sure I get a good night’s sleep two nights before the race. (i.e. friday night to saturday morning, if i’m racing on sunday).
This is actually the correct answer. The amount of sleep you get the night right before the race is MUCH less improvement than the sleep you get two nights before. So don’t worry too much about the night before but make sure you get your sleep earlier in the week!
Really? Well, so much for my recommendation!
I usually wake up around 4 or 5am the day before so that by the time it’s 7 or 8 the night before, i’m more than ready to go to bed. I’ve done this for almost all my races (including NYC Tri Sunday when I started at 5:57am) and haven’t had a problem yet!
i think about how lucky i am to have nothing more serious to worry about than a hopefully fun (but essentially meaningless) race the next day, vs. the billions of people on this earth that have real things to worry about …
it works great.
Best night of sleep is when I don’t take the family and I am in the hotel room by myself. If I have the family, then my night before sleep really sucks.
This is a great question! For years I had no problem sleeping - now I do, actually. I started taking 1 Tylenol PM…I know a TON of athletes that do this…and I have NO issues with it the next morning - (ie., grogginess, etc). And, I try hard NOT to sleep in at all 2 mornings prior to the race.
Unisom worked for me at IMLP last year. I got a solid 6.5-7 hours of sleep the night before the race. It does leave some dry mouth, but you need to hydrate anyways.
I am looking for the magic solution too. After all these years I am still nervous the night before no matter how small the race is.
Herbert
Tylenol PM take it early and relax…make sure you take it at least 8 hrs. before you want to be up and at’em to avoid any residual “draggienss”…
i think about how lucky i am to have nothing more serious to worry about than a hopefully fun (but essentially meaningless) race the next day, vs. the billions of people on this earth that have real things to worry about …
it works great.
that sort of stuff never works for me. i wind up feeling too indulgent.
you’re right, of course, we are lucky - and it would help most of us to think about that more. it’s just that thinking about that isn’t what tends to help me sleep well.
Believe it or not - you can try panikcing about it now 
If you do it enough - you will be worn out by the race. Then go to bed at 8:30 (just to lie down - after all you are not going to sleep well the night before the race right?) And amazingly - you will sleep.