Just a bit of a poll:
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How much sleep do you get per night when training for IM
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How often do you wake up in the night (not just to pee)
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What do you call “quality” sleep
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Others
Curious Larry
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7 hours average
3-4 times becouse I drink alot at night.
If I’m training hard I sometimes have restless legs during the night.
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7 hours
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3-4 times
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If I’m really tired I’ll sleep the entire night through
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Seven hours, though when I’m really tired, somehow my alarm shuts itself off in the night and I get extra sleep. I look at that as a sign I needed the sleep.
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Lately, at least once. Last night I went to bed a little before 10PM, woke up around midnight and didn’t get back to sleep until nearly 2AM. Though this could be due to the antibiotics I’m on with “difficulty sleeping” the second listed side effect.
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Uninterrupted sleep. Not tossing and turning.
clm
Sleep is for the weak. And I am very weak.
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5-6. Just love that late night TV
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1-2
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8-10 hours and memories of dreams from the past night. That’s when I know I have slept well.
I average 8 hours but I favor 9 hours. I attended the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual summit last year in Reno, NV and sat in on a presentation about adequate sleep for athletes. 7.5 - 9 was best. The interesting thing to me was the presenter recommended trying to sleep in 90 minute intervals because that is the length of the average sleep cycle. Waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle will make you feel groggy and less rested. So if napping, plan on 1.5 hours. Of course you also have to factor in how long it takes you to fall asleep.
I felt like crap this weekend and snoozed for 12 hours straight on Saturday…sometimes you just have to listen to what your body is trying to tell you.
Dave from VA
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I am averaging 6 hours as a high school swim coach that isn’t training. While training I’m about 7.5 but I like that early AM Pilates, so sometime’s it’s less.
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Why are you guys waking up in the middle of the night so much? I rarely do.
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Quality sleep is what everyone else said, but I love those great nights of sleep when you wake up and feel like you were in a coma all night and don’t remember a thing!
It’s a drag. I know sleeping is very important for recovery but I love staying up!
p.s. this isn’t for IM training, only Olympic.
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5-6 hours. Have to read every night for at least 30 minutes to relax.
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Wake up often but I just moved in with my girlfriend and she is introducing me to this new concept of “Cuddling.” I like it but it wakes me up.
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Uninterrupted sleep, waking up when your body is ready not when the alarm goes off.
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I sleep about 6-8 hours a night (this would be less if I include waking during the night)
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On some nights I wake up 1-2 times for an hour or so.
I get very worried when I wake up in the middle of the night. The harder I train, the more this happens. But, I schedule plenty of “recovery” days and weeks so I can’t imagine that I’m overtrained. I eat all the right foods as well. Is it a problem that I wake up in the middle of the night? I was surprised how common it was according to the other posts in this thread.
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8 hours & naps on the weekends
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2-3 times – have to stay hydrated
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sleep the entire night through, no stress at work
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After long/intense workouts extra sleep does make a difference on my training
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8hrs. TV is off at 9, lights out by 10. Up at 6.
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2-3X/night to pee. When the cats are loud, I wake up more often.
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Totally uninterrupted.
Almost identical to Heschal
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8hrs. Lights out by 9:00 to 10. Up at 5:00 to 6.
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1-2X/night to pee.
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Uninterrupted, except for 1-2 pee breaks.
If you are talking about a nap, you should only go down for 15-20 minutes. Any longer and you get into your sleep cycle and need to be down for the full 90 minutes. i grab a quick 20 minute nap when i get back from the office before I run/ride/swim and it makes all the difference in the world.
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6 hours max (unfortunately). Writing, working and training make for very busy days.
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2-3 times a night, sometimes just to pee and sometimes I just wake up for an hour or so and worry about stuff. (light sleeper).
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My favorite “sleeps” are those luscious post-brick 2 hour comas and my 15 minute naps during lunch here at the theater. BTW: A big empty (soundproof) theater is the best napping environment in NYC.
I feel a little less odd now about waking up so much at night after reading all the other posts. I wonder if its endemic to our sport or the tiype of people who are drawn to the sport?
I am in bed for about 8 hours a night. Somewhere around 10-6.
In this time I wake and check the clock at least 4 times. 10 times isn’t all that unusual.
The other night I woke and looked at the clock and it was already 5. No interruptions from 10-5. I cranked out my 25 miles to work with a smile and felt great all day. Unfortunately haven’t been able to repeat.
Are we all insomniac’s? Is this a result of training?
I notice I can never nap after races, and often sleep extra poorly that night (despite being exhausted). I wonder if this is all related…
Last year I was involved with a sleep and performance study.
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ya didn’t have to be a great sleeper, just regular. As long as it was consistent you’re OK
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ya didn’t have to be a great performer, just excercise at least 3 times a week. (hell I excercise 3 times a week by monday night!)
They had us record our sleep for about a month as well as chart our excercise for the same period.
Then they tested us for physical performance by testing grip strength and leg extension tests. Then they tested our cognitive abilities by seeing how accurately we could do 20/40/60 & 80% of our max strength on the two tests. repeats etc just to be fair. No looking at the strain gauges to cheat either.
Next we had 7 nights of reduced sleep, in my case by 3 hours less each night. I usually (can’t call it normally ) get about 7-8 hours per night, waking 3-5 times each night. (no rest for the wicked)
Until about day 5 I felt tired but reasonable, within reason. At day 5 I started to really crave sleep and started feeling pretty grotty and bitchy (even worse than usual according to “her indoors”) By day 7 I really had no friends left and had to work hard not to scream at my clients! (no meetings on day 7! thank god)
After 7 nights we redid the tests.
Low and behold, physical performance (max strength) was not reduced! Well within the daily variation already identified in the previous tests. The cognitive tests were also within the tolerance of daily variation!
So even though ya might feel like you’re performing like crap after a bad night sleep (or even a few) it’s actually in your head. I guess it’s just thtat you don’t give a damn as much as usual, but apperently you are still performing well.
I guess this means we shouldn’t get too stressed about getting a good night sleep before IM and other races. This on it’s own, might lead to a better nights sleep and PERCEIVED improved performance.
Cool huh?
TriDork
Amen tridork. now I don’t have to worry when I am up between 2-4am about every thrid night. It’s amazing how much work you can get done when no one else is working.