how many hours of sleep is recomended?
i have heard it is 8. i also read that it is best to go to sleep between 10pm to 6am because between those hours the hormones are released.
helps to have a nap after working out also
I’m currently getting around 9 to 9.5 hours of sleep a night (although I may sometimes lie in bed 10 hours, trying to get fall asleep). I get around 11 hours on weekends. Any less, my eyelids start twitching.
10-11 hours is very much… . a study shows that not enough sleep and too much sleep are bad for the heart. it said that 8,5 h sleep is perfect for normal people, but people that are training would need a little bit more sleep I’d guess…
In those countries where people live to be over 100 years old, one of their philosophies is to sleep “when the sun goes down, and rise with the sun”.
Obviously, these folks aren’t doing speed endurance, nor do they have 9-5 jobs to pay the bills!
That being said, I would recommend sleeping in multiples of 1.5 hours (though some say 3), so 7.5 hours or even 9 hours. (Notice how 8 is NOT in the formula! Doh! No wonder the rest of the world feels groggy!)
If you are a student, and have to cram for an exam (God Bless your soul) then try 3.0 or 4.5 hours of sleep!
As far as taking naps, you have 2 camps: some say 20 min, and some prefer a full REM cycle of 90 minutes! (I know a few morning radio DJ’s who wake up at 3:30am, and they all take 90 min naps in the afternoon)
i’m in big agrement with fjlee,
sleep cycles tend to be about 90min.
too find out how much you need, take note of the time you go to bed, wake without an alarm. and count the hours.
for me when i get 9 hours, i’m ready for anything.
fjlee shared this info w/ me late last year when I was sleeping 9.5 hours and always feeling tired. So what did I DO after he told me? I woke up 1/2 earlier each morning (to make it an even 9h) to hit my abs (500-1000r) and I went to work Supercharged. This in addition to the ZMA really helped. After about 2.5 - 3 wks of this I no longer needed caffeine in the morning and I was really alert at work.
-Balance
anyone wishing to research SLEEP can check out the Stanford Research Center… they have lots of material out there.
thnax guys
How close to 90 minutes are these sleep phases, and are they consistent?
Sleep this is good but i don’t get any of it.
I go to bed everyday at 2pm aleast because there is too musch on my mind. And monday to friday i have to get up at 7 in the mroning so i only get about 4hours sleep juring the week but at weekends i stay up until 4 a 5 in the morning but sleep all day. I think this has affected me when i have my meets because they are early in the day, about 12noon and usaully am still in bed at that time so it messers me up.
But this is going to change
I think the 90 min REM cycles varies a bit to each individual, but don’t forget to add the time it takes you to fall asleep!
fjlee,
So if left to their own devices (i.e. no alarm clock) do humans (besides in nightmares) usually wake up in 1.5 hour intervals.
they don’t awaken, but they are easily woken up during the end of the REM cycles. (is this sentence gramatically correct?) :shoot:
Mr Shumon Cool
Why do you have so much on your mind, or what is it you have on your mind, that prevents sleep? If you don’t mind me asking :mrt:
I have just recently started (this week)having 7.5 hours sleep, except for the first 30 minutes after waking I’m doing okay.
But I noticed last night (Friday) I went to sleep about an hour earlier and woke up 9 hours later and just rolled over and slept for another 2 hours. This is not normal for me, I am starting to feel sleepy again now (about 5 hours since getting up)
I did this because of reading about 90 minutes of REM on this forum.
Thanks
DMA:
it is normal to “sleep in” or catch up on your sleep on the weekends!
also, was your Friday AM workout very hard?
Thanks for the reply fjlee. I have been using the 1.5 hour blocks since reading this thread and I would definitely say its made a difference.