how much sleep do you get?

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how much sleep do you get?

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

how much sleep do you get? Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 6:39 pm

This past week I've been feeling fairly exhausted, which I credit to last week's race and long run coupled with too many late nights recently. That got me wondering-- how much sleep do other runners typically get? I'm probably in bed for an average of about 8 hours per night, from 11PM to 7AM, which sounds pretty good. But when I think about it, the amount of time I'm actually asleep is much less. I'm a light sleeper, so any little disturbance will wake me up, even something like my wife moving around in her sleep. Between the cats jumping around on the furniture or my daughter crying in the night, I'm probably awoken something like five times per night on average. I also find that if something wakes me up after about 6AM, it's difficult for me to fall asleep again. Anyone else want to compare notes? Got any tricks for getting a better night's sleep?

mfox

South Orange, New Jersey
Joined: 19 Dec 2004
Posts: 367

Re: how much sleep do you get? Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 8:22 pm

I usually get about 7 hours of sleep (11p-6a) on a typical day. I'm also a light sleeper like you. I sleep better in the summer when the window air-conditioner in my bedroom is on and drowns out the noise. This reminds me of an article I read not too long ago. I can't remember where I saw it (I'll try to remember) but it said that even if you get 8 hours of sleep a night you can be sleep-deprived if you keep waking up without being able to complete your deep (REM) sleep. It takes a while for your body to get to the REM phase of sleep and if you are interrupted the cycle starts over. If you get interrupted often enough you may never reach REM sleep and thus never get a good deep sleep. So perhaps you need to come up with something like an air-conditioner...something that makes white noise. Your body adjusts quickly to hearing the white noise...which should be just loud enough to cancel out any surrounding noises that would otherwise wake you up. I know this is a popular technique for people who work the night shift and have to sleep during the day (when there can be a lot of noise outside). You might want to also try ear plugs. But keep in mind this can be dangerous too. If you can't hear your smoke and CO alarm go off you put yourself in danger of sleeping through it. Which ever solution you find, you might want to test it when you nap on the weekend (what a great excuse) and see how it works. Have someone test your alarm(s) when you appear to asleep to see if it still wakes you up.

Bricks
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
Chicago
Joined: 09 Dec 2004
Posts: 222

Re: how much sleep do you get? Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 9:17 am

it seems like i get a different amount of sleep every night. i aim for at least seven, sometimes get 5-6, sometimes 8-9. one thing that i find helps me is sticking to a good waking schedule. in other words, try to get up at the same time every day, regardless of how much sleep i got. if i sleep in to catch up, i find it difficult to fall asleep at night and then it takes days to get back on schedule. if i don't get enough sleep, i get up anyway and am usually tired enough at night to fall asleep early to catch up. one thing i really tend to notice is that 1 day's lag. in other words if i only got 5 last night, tomorrow i will be tired, or if i got 9 last night tomorrow i will feel great. i try to keep this in mind for long runs and races. i also tend to need more sleep during peak training. i read somewhere that runners need about 10 minutes extra of sleep per night as their weekly mileage. So, for example if you are running 60 mile weeks, you should really be getting 9 hours a sleep per night, every night (assuming 8 is the average person's night sleep).

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

Re: how much sleep do you get? Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 10:02 pm

Thanks for the suggestions. I've tired using a fan to generate white noise a few times, and it does help a little bit. I don't seem to have any problem reaching REM sleep, where dreaming occurs. I had thought that REM was in fact the most active level of brain activity during sleep, basically the opposite of the deep sleep you need in order to feel fully rested. From what I recall, the normal progression first goes through increasingly deeper levels of sleep to a very deep sleep, then back up to REM sleep, then alternates cycles of REM and deeper sleep for the rest of the night. I probably just need to start getting to bed earlier, but if I turn in much earlier than I do now, my 3 year old daughter will be staying up later than her dad! :-)

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