How important is sleep w/regards to exercise?

[b3pkay]

First three weeks into the start of my second year of grad school and I can attest to lack of sleep making any riding feel like work--in a bad way.

Could also have to do with not finding the time to eat well/properly and that my hours on the bike have significantly dropped, but my fitness has suffered immensely already.

[ojingoh]

Yeah sleep is up there no question. My physical goal is a healthy body: anaerobic strength, aerobic efficiency and a high-functioning central nervous system. I find it really tricky to do all three well, and forget it if I'm stressing my CNS through exercise or life.

I have found that my own personal wall is when my CNS just cannot handle the reps or the miles. I get an eye twitch, I can't train and gain, I can't ride farther. I sort of tread water.

My understanding is that some people - younger people in particular - can go with minimal impact to physiology when they sleep less. This includes anabolic recovery, catabolic recovery and critically CNS recovery. Older you are, the less so, and I'm not sure why.

[fbhidy]

Originally Posted by nash

I just started weight training this year and in that world sleep is talked about as being as important as diet and training. During training you are breaking your body down, eating gives you what you need to rebuild it and sleep and general rest is when that happens. Your body won't perform if you dont give it what it needs

Sleep should be another discipline of your training schedule. If you read up on any ultra distance training, sleep becomes another variable in your training. Riding on minimal sleep can be just another way to train for an event where your sleep is restricted. But when it comes time for the race, you bet they are as well rested as they can be.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[joev]

Maybe someone with a bit of knowledge can follow up on this...it is somewhat related. Background, I ride about 150 miles/week with a few weekday morning rides and a long/hard Saturday ride and a "tempo" Sunday ride. A couple of weeks ago on an off-work Friday I did a strenuous mtn bike ride ~40 miles. I bonked pretty bad. That night, no sleep. I was toast after the ride. Ate and drank to recover and did bounce back that afternoon but when I went to bed it was as though I drank a couple cups of coffee. Eyes wide open. At about 2:00 AM, after checking on the usual websites, I googled exercise and insomnia and came to a CTS site that talked about cortisol and that the body may not be able to flush out all the hormones that it pumps out to keep you going.

The following night I slept like a baby...

So, and not to stray too far from the OP, even if you try to get your sleep, you might have difficulty given the workout that you might have had during the day. At this point, I am at a loss to know what you can do for recovery that lets you get the rest you need.

[Mark McM]

In our go, go, go culture, sleep is often seen as a waste of time. This is incorrect. Sleep is necessary to for the peak performance of both mind and body. Wise men know that sleep is never a waste of time.

[HenryA]

These four things will help:

1. Wean yourself off caffeine.

2. Eat your last meal of the day earlier in the evening.

3. Keep a regular schedule of waking and sleeping.

4. Restrict use of electronic devices to daylight hours.

[merlinmurph]

Michael Phelps is a notorious snooze hound.

Just Google him and there are countless articles related to his hours of snoozing.

[William]

Exercise is important, but of the three necessities it is the least important compared to rest/sleep and nutrition...






William

[ptourkin]

I use a heart rate variability (HRV) app to monitor my fatigue during training and nothing has a great impact on my morning score than the previous night's sleep.

[Drmojo]

When asked by a journalist about his hobbies he replied: "sleeping"
I have always wanted a bumper sticker that reads " I'd rather be sleeping"
Then I saw one
But alas I have NEVER had a bumper sticker on any of my cars.
Or college window stickers either
No logo