Hey. I am a beginner olympic lifter. I train 5 olympic lifting sessions now(really intense) a week and might run sprints(low volume) once a week. Right now I get plenty of sleep but things are going to change. I now plan to get only 6 hours of consistent sleep a day. Aiming to sleep 12am-6am and try not to let it vary on weekends. It unfortunate but it would be difficult to get more sleep than this being a college student and aiming for medical school(while being an athlete, having a social life, volunteering, etc…). I don’t drink alcohol, dont smoke, no caffeine and diet is good though. But everything can’t be ideal.
Ive order some ZMA and a sleep aid recommended by joe defranco called power to sleep pm by irwin naturals. I am still considering taking this or not though and if I do I definitely will limit its use. http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/in/power.html
Do you guys think getting only 6 hours a night would have any effect on gains? Anybody recommend anything else I can do? The power to sleep supplement contains melatonin anything I should be wary about? I think that covers it thanks!
Sleep supplements tend to be exceedingly varaible, what works for one does nothing for another. One thing to be aware of: the B6 in many commercial ZMA products can keep some people awake.
If you find yourself WIDE AWAKE an hour after taking it, you’re one of them. In that case, buy generic zinc and source magnesium citrate separately. The magnesium is the main thing involved in sleepiness anyhow. You can probbably skip the zinc (though many athletes are deficient).
Melatonin can leave some people hung over the next morning and/or give them freaky dreams. A lot of this is dose. Early ideas had folks supplements 1-3 mg. Some do better with as little as 300mcg.
I would say that with your schedule including med school and serious training your gonna die out sooner or later. Sleep is very very important. When you study you will be using brain power. Same with your training. ITs gonna catch up to you. Your gonna hve to drop something, maybe the social life. lol. I once had two jobs while training. train 5am-8, 1st job 8-5, 2nd 6-11. sleep 11:30 to 4;30. After a week I would fall asleep at work. I ended up getting let go from the 2nd job. I just couldnt handle it. IMO 6 hours will not cut it. Serious athletes need 8 hours minimum. unless you can make up for those 6 hour days with power naps and a long sleep day during the week. Your gonna have to drop something.
What I used to do was a compromise between what you are proposing and it worked great. Pick about 2 days in the week where you will get up at 5 or 6am to get either your study or training out of the way. On the remaining days get up around 8 or 9 am depending on your lectures. This way the lack of sleep doesn’t catch up with you. You could try a maximum of 3 days per week cutting on sleep but 2 worked well for me.
This is an often forgotten point. If you tire out the brain the body won’t respond as well and vice versa. The body is one organism and stress in one area has repercussions in others.
In college, it seemed that being a student-athlete, and with a job, was a wonderful thing, because time got structured really nicely (after the meticulous organization of a ‘master-plan’ :p), and everything got done. However, training was not high quality, and sometimes, 6 hours of sleep sufficed during the week.
Now that I’ve been attempting frequent high quality training sessions for a couple of years, I realize how much sleep is needed, especially along with studies, and if two nights go with 6 hours of sleep, I can barely think the third day.
You mentioned 5 intense lifting sessions per week, so that could be a slight problem, but perhaps if you are a beginner, you will be doing less high CNS demanding stuff (since you won’t be able to reach your max potential yet). Hopefully it will all progress nicely for you. Good luck =)
(p.s. cut down on the social life. You’ll make enough friends during class and training, and whatever else, and don’t volunteer so much - please do not attack :rolleyes: - in the end, you’ll wish you had done more for yourself, plus, there will be plenty of time to become Mother Teresa when you get older and have more resources)
alright thanks everybody definitely going to bump up it to 7 hours a night now and cut back. Or I could opt for 6 hours a night with naps but my 1/2 hour naps tend to turn into 5 hours of sleep. So pretty sure I will now stick with 7 hours a night no more no less. The sleep aids are definitely make a big difference btw.
Ok, is there some kind of pill/supplement that compensates, even a little, for the lack of sleep?
I’m tired all the time now, and I’m sleeping 7-8 hours per night, sometimes I even take a power nap in the afternoon (but rarely), but I can’t sleep all day… I have so much work to do.
Perhaps for those who can’t sleep 10+ hours, who train hard, while also stressing the brain with work, should have their iron levels checked? (this is just what one coach here suggested, because most athletes have hematocrit issues, which adds fatigue)
I’m also taking 750mg carnitine per day (for more than a year now); I know Charlie recommended 2000mg per day for sprinters (cognitive support)
You might try theanine, 100-200 mg about an hour before bedtime. At least one study out of Japan found that it improved subjective sleep quality. Again, one of those things that works for some and not for all.
I’ll read into ZMA and theanine, although I’m an excellent sleeper… so, I don’t think that’s my problem, exactly. I see tons of dreams every night, and they are always vivid.
I just want more… and more, because I always do something during the day that tires my brain.
And on a side note, I was looking at a lecture on youtube given by a neuroscientist, and the lecture was about improving brain function, and he said the best supplement that induced deep sleep and improved brain function was a herb that use to be legal to buy back in the 90s’ but now you need a prescription for it. He went on to say that the deeper you sleep the more you will be able to interact with life in a more profound way.
I need to spend a day tracking down the lecture as I lost the link (and the name of the supplement), but when I do I will post it here.
