"If You Need an Alarm Clock to Wake Up You Aren't Getting Enough Sleep" - True or False?

Congrats

I reckon you should be getting at least 6 or 7 more hours sleep per night and probably a couple of hour long naps during the day.

If you're going to attack some all time PRs, I think you need to stop worrying about your family. Plus the demanding job and all.

I hope a man breaks in to your trailer tonight and chops off all your limbs while you're in REM phase.

Suck it, stumpy!

With the exception of Mr. Trollism, it is apparent that none of you never have had the chance to chase multiple dreams. One-sided tools. What a heap of garbage this website has become.

If you attack your PRs like you attack us, you'll be running a sub-4 hour mary in no time. You're awesome.

Well, seeing as how I'm not a loser and all I cannot (nor want to) give up on my wife and family. Never ran a marathon, never plan to run a marathon - that point is irrelevant.

Why do you bother posting? Are you that desperate for something to do in life? It is a sincere question. I look forward to your answer.

Your willingness to take time away from "attacking PRs" and focus on me makes me warm inside. Thank you. I'd love to hear more about your demanding job, too.

Obvious Answer Guy wrote:

If you attack your PRs like you attack us, you'll be running a sub-4 hour mary in no time. You're awesome.

+1

To OP. No not needing an Alarm clock does not necesseraly indicate that you are getting enough sleep. It often does, but waking up early could also be an indication that something is not right, for example that you are too stressed. Even tough the most common reason to not sleeping enough is probably not being able to fall asleep early enough in the night, there are also many who are unable because they can't stay awake.The best example of when it doesn't indicate you are getting enough sleep is when you are overtraining, it is not unussual when overtraining to be waking up earlier and earlier, sleeping less and less even tough you acctualy need more sleep than before.

In your case, you don't seem(obviously i don't know since all i know is what is in your post) to be burning out, but if you feel more tired than you used to on days after a hard run, that's probably an indication that the decreased sleep is interfeering with your recovery. For maximal athletic performance you ofcourse should maximise length and quality of sleep.

My tips to increase the length you are able to sleep.

1: Make sure the room is really dark, the best in your case is probably not to let any light in at all.

2:Make sure your room is at a comfortable temperature throughout the night.

3: Expose yourself to alot of sunlight(normal light is good too but sunlight is best) during the day, people who can't fall asleep at night are usualy told to expose themselves to alot of sunlight in the morning, you should probably try to postpone it a bit.

4: If you don't really have to go, it could help to stay in bed when you wake up feeling the urge to pee. If you go up to pee at 4:30 everyday it will become a habit for your body and you will wake up just cause your body is used to walking everyday at 4:30(not exactly ofcourse).

5: Try to decrease stress, in generall too ofcourse, but especialy early in the morning and late at night.

6: Try to put your meals later, when you sleep, the hungrier you get the more likely are you to wake up. Try to postpone your breakfast, because we become hungry by habit, so eating breakfast first thing in the morning makes it a habit to our body to wake up at that time. And eat your last meal later, maybe have a snack like an hour before bed. Also eating less to breakfast and more for the last meal helps.

Okay that's my opinion, and my unasked for advice.

Also make sure you're bed is comfortable. And about the light in your room, you could also consider buying a sleep mask.

Obvious Answer Guy wrote:

Your willingness to take time away from "attacking PRs" and focus on me makes me warm inside. Thank you. I'd love to hear more about your demanding job, too.

Next time I'll use the words "chase my old PRs" so as not to offend you or make you feel quite as insecure. When you grow up and leave home you will realize how hard it is to balance real life, much less running and real life.

In general, this is true especially for people who need very little sleep in the first place. The true test is whether you sleep as much on vacation as you do regularly. If so, you're probably one of the unfortunate few who will forever be plagued with a hyperactive constitution no matter what you do to try to improve your sleep.

Thank you for your help! I could really do better at 4, 5, and 6. I think I have 1, 2, and 3 covered (regarding the sun, I work inside; albeit, by a window with a lot of sunlight but rarely get out in the sun during the week this time of year because of work).

I watch mindless TV with my wife to decompress before going to bed but I have read that light from a screen might not be a good idea.

Thank you again!

mesosleepy wrote:

In general, this is true especially for people who need very little sleep in the first place. The true test is whether you sleep as much on vacation as you do regularly. If so, you're probably one of the unfortunate few who will forever be plagued with a hyperactive constitution no matter what you do to try to improve your sleep.

I took the last two weeks of 2016 off from work, which is rare for me. The days were short and it was cold out. My wife took time off too and we were 10:30 - 6:30 - 7am sleepers every night. I am always the first one awake on vacations. I have a hard time sleeping-in in general and never feel the urge to nap.

jman1 wrote:

I have been waking up to pee at about 4:30am and I can't go back to sleep.

You might want to go get your doc to stick his finger up your rump to make sure the ol prostate is in good shape. You are a bit young to have the 4:30 am pee clock. You may also want to limit fluids around dinner time.

jman1 wrote:

mesosleepy wrote:

In general, this is true especially for people who need very little sleep in the first place. The true test is whether you sleep as much on vacation as you do regularly. If so, you're probably one of the unfortunate few who will forever be plagued with a hyperactive constitution no matter what you do to try to improve your sleep.

I took the last two weeks of 2016 off from work, which is rare for me. The days were short and it was cold out. My wife took time off too and we were 10:30 - 6:30 - 7am sleepers every night. I am always the first one awake on vacations. I have a hard time sleeping-in in general and never feel the urge to nap.

Napping is an impossibility. Like an intangible temptation that is just out of reach at all times.

Precious Roy wrote:

jman1 wrote:

I have been waking up to pee at about 4:30am and I can't go back to sleep.

You might want to go get your doc to stick his finger up your rump to make sure the ol prostate is in good shape. You are a bit young to have the 4:30 am pee clock. You may also want to limit fluids around dinner time.

I know I pee a lot. I had a catheter when I had a hernia repair two years ago and now seem to need to pee more frequently.

Everyone is different, so who knows why you might not be sleeping as much, but we need consider one possibility.

Overtraining (or at least your body not absorbing all the training) can lead to an increased heart rate. This is particularly relevant when trying to go to bed, as the increased heart rate is the same kind of symptom you would get from taking caffeine. An elevated heart rate will make it harder to sleep. It's your body's way of naturally trying to be ready to run or have energy at any given moment because it believes a lot is being demanded of it.

You mentioned you were trying to attack old PRs. Have you increased your training a lot lately in order to do this? I remember back in high school when I went from 40 mpw to 60+ mpw while doing some doubles and even random triples that my resting heart rate increased. Usually you think of endurance athletes as having low resting heart rates, but not if you are putting seemingly random exercise demands on your body. It happened to me then again when I was an adult doing serious marathon training and increased my volume and frequency of running more than I probably should have. My body started relying on sleep less as I adapted to waking up in the morning to run a double. I stopped having as deep of a sleep because my body was anticipating waking up soon to go run again.

You read about athletes like Lindgren who were insomniacs and there is one recent American male who was also an insomniac, but I forget at the moment his name. I think it's pretty common among serious distance athletes and while some people might argue they were insomniacs first I think the evidence points to heavy loads of training causing sleeping problems. Many successful professional athletes need a nap or 10+ hours of sleep to fully absorb their workouts and be rested.

So I don't know what's normal for you, but it's worth pondering whether a high volume or frequency of training might have put your body into an advanced state of readiness that has jeopardized sleep.

very thoughtful. thank you