I’ve had an on again off again love and hate relationship with sleep. I’ve had several bouts of insomnia, lasting from days to over a year. Much like many other things, my outlook on sleep has changed a bit as I’ve grown a little older.
I’ve always liked sleeping, but until fairly recently I hated the necessity of sleep. I wished that I could find a way to sleep less without being tired. I thought I was wasting time by sleeping. Time that I could spend doing other things, not that I was being especially productive anyway, but that’s beside the point.
My ambition for running longer distances was actually a catalyst for me to change my thoughts on sleep. Several months ago, I came across Michael Arnstein, the Frutarian. I watched a number of YouTube videos of him speaking. One thing that he emphasized helped him with recovery was getting enough sleep. “Enough” for him was 8-10 hours of sleep a night, possibly up to 12 after a 100 mi race. I already knew that sleep is when our bodies do much of the repair processes. But it gave me something specific to think about in that context, rather than some nebulous idea of repair or regeneration. It’s pretty amazing to feel the difference between the evening after a long or otherwise hard run and in the morning following a full night of sleep.
I’ve been a night owl as long as I can remember. I’ve tried to fight it on a number of occasions, but I end up just cutting back on sleep to get up earlier, rather than going to bed earlier. Since making the connection between my body’s regeneration during sleep and run recovery, I’ve given up the fight. I go to bed when I’m tired and get up when I feel I’m well rested. It’s usually 8-10 hours. Occasionally, it’ll dip to 7 hours or go up to 11. It helps that I work from home and make my own schedule.
You might think, “well that’s great, Brian, but I don’t work from home, nor do I have a flexible schedule.” When I do have something that I have to get up for, I occasionally cut my sleep short, depending on the situation. I’ve also tried another of Arnstein’s suggestions a few times, taking melatonin about an hour before I want to sleep. It works OK, but not great. I count back 9 hours from when I need to get up and take .5-1 mg of melatonin. One thing about melatonin: I’ve had some crazy dreams after taking it. Apparently, people into lucid dreaming like to use melatonin to try inducing lucidity.
If I need to make a pretty drastic sleep schedule change, I sometimes take a few days to adjust. I might sacrifice an hour or two of sleep the first day. Then I’ll adjust my my schedule in stages. The Rattlesnake Ridge 50k I did last month started at 7:30 am. Accounting for getting ready, drive time and check-in, I had to get up no later than 4:45 am. Around then went to bed about 3-4 am on average and woke up around noon, give or take. Two days prior, I set an alarm for 10:30 am, and got about 7 hours. That night, I got to sleep between 1-2 am and set an alarm for 8:30 am. I took some melatonin the night before the race and got to sleep around around 10 pm. While not ideal, it worked. Next time around, I’ll give it a couple more days.
For those of you that have to be to work or school on time at the same time every day, or get your kids and family ready for their day, you can create a flexible sleep schedule enabling you to sleep until you’re well rested. Figure out your range of needed sleep. It might take a little experimentation, probably best to do on a weekend or otherwise when you don’t have to be up at a specific time. Results might be skewed if you’re going from sleep deprivation directly to sleeping to well rested. Until you narrow it down, start with 8-10 hours. Count back 10 hours from when you need to get up. That’s your bedtime. Then sleep until you’re well rested. If it’s only 8 hours, you now have 2 hours extra in the morning for whatever you want — exercise, read, have an awesome breakfast, meditate, or whatever.
I love sleep, and sleep loves me. Even though I used to think I could accomplish more by sleeping less, I’m happier getting enough sleep than having that extra time awake each day but being tired all the time. I’m not convinced I got more done over the long run anyway. Not only am I happier, I also feel a lot better throughout the day. Not being tired all the time is awesome.