I wanted to take an informal pool on this. I know most of you out there juggle family work, Tri, etc. I was wondering how much do you mange to squeeze in for sleep? Also, is there a ‘sleep threshhold’ where if you don’t get a certain amount of sleep over a period of time that you find your performance and attitude deteriorating?
Me personally, I try (sometimes not very hard) for at least 7 every night. I can get by with 3-4 hours every once in awhile. However, I find that if I get consistantly less than 6 over 3 days or more I find I don’t recover from my workouts very well and my productivity at work also suffers. Mild paranoia and depression soon follow.
I try to get to bed by 10, but it usually ends up being 11, and I am up at 5:20 (maybe a snooze or two) for my morning workout. I end up crashing on the weekends sometimes. After my long bike or run, I’ll take a long nap, seems to help, but not a good substitute for good consistant sleep during the week.
Great question! I try to get 7.5-8 hrs. a night, but the occasional short night won’t kill me. However, if I stray below 6 hrs. for several nights in a row, I really start to wear down and get sick.
Wow, I wish I could get 8 hours of sleep. I could probably do it on the weekends, except that my friends/training partners always say they have to play parent and therefore have to start our long rides/runs early even on weekends.
My sleep patterns are bizarre. During one consecutive 48 hour period last week I worked 32 hours. That leaves little time for food or sleep, and none for luxuries like changing clothes and showers. Recently I have been able to get more sleep, often times at least 8 hours, which is really great. My body responds very well to sleep and seems to do a great job repairing itself when given adequate sleep. I often wonder what kind of athlete I mght be if I actually trained, slept and ate decent. Probably about the same
I seem to be fine on 5.5-6 hours a night. I manage to get a couple more at the weekend by grabbing a nap during the day. I’m 27 - do you ‘more mature’ types find that you need more or less or the same amount of sleep as you age? Don’t think my sleep patterns have changed much, apart from when I was at uni an averaged about 15-20 hours a day.
Seven to eight hours everynight with very short naps thrown in occasionally, This sleep is often broken up by my daughter, thats when the naps come in.
I do best on 9 hours a night. I usually get 8. If I get 7 or less for a few days, I end up having to skip a workout or two because I have no energy. Maybe I need more coffee and cherry turnovers.
I thank my wife for disciplining our sleep habits. We go to bed at 8:30 nearly every weeknight, giving us a solid 8 hours of sleep since we have to be up at 5:00. I don’t watch much TV so I’m not missing much there. I haven’t seen Monday Night Football in years, not that I’m missing much there, either.
Wow! Even when I used to stay up to 11:00 or so, if I was working out that late (8:30), I wouldn’t be calmed down enough to sleep till well into the AM. 1900 is my hard ceiling for training. If I can’t get it done by then, it costs me more than it benefits my training.
My problem is waking up. No matter how many hours I sleep here lately I have the toughest time getting out of bed. I wake up about 5am but don’t have the energy to get out of bed. It takes an hour or so before I can make it to the breakfast table. I have had to rearrange my training schedule due to my lack of energy in the morning.
My sister was thinking about posting, but hasn’t, so I will post for her.
She can get stuck at work until 8:30, and then ends up on the Computrainer or out on the road running well after dark. It tends to put a dent in her morning workouts, which means she has to try to squeeze in her workouts at night, which means she’s up late and then can’t get up in the morning… You get the picture. She’s lucky to get 5 - 6 hours a night.
My wife and I shut off the TV at 9 and have lights off by 10.
I get up at 5 or 5:50 for a workout so that’s 7 or so a night. Which
is plenty unless her cats meow in the night. Which really pisses me off.
Back a few years in my college days I would work the night shift at the food wharehouse. Most of the time I would do 5-6 mile runs at 11:00 pm and some times as late as 1:00 am. I would get home drenched in sweat and be in bed about 15 minutes later with no shower or stretching and be asleep soon after that.
During the last couple of years I have been amazed at the time you find for sleep and other things if you turn the TV off or better yet never turn it on. The less I watch and the more I have thought about it the more useless and wasteful TV time seems.
8 hours is my staple, sometimes I have the chance to sleep more and I still end up waking up after 8 hours or so. I can live on 7 but less than that and things start going south.
