I Got Nothing. Including Sleep.

Writer’s block maybe? I’ve just spent so much energy this week on school stuff that I am spent.  Not sleeping due to the exam then not sleeping due to Relay = exhaustion.  I’m sure many of you can no doubt relate.

Relay was fun as always.  Since it’s still early in the calender year my school holds Relay in the field house.  Some years it’s a bummer because we do get a nice evening.  Last night the low was 16*.  Smart call planning committee.  I did get there late (annoying because I’m on the planning committee!) but it was still fun.  There are games, contests, performing groups etc.  Very fun.

And yet still tiring.  Since I’m a person that cannot sleep when the sun is up (so no naps for this chica ever) I couldn’t go to bed after the event was over.  So what did I do? Run. Duh.  Or tried too.  The combo of stress + no sleep + week 4 of training proved to be too much and I *struggled* hardcore.  I don’t think that my recent shin tenderness (read: not an injury. Please keep that in mind people) helped too much either.  So I cut the run short.

Not much to say on it .  Very upsetting but I know that so many factors went into this bust of a run.  And my rational brain can know this but my heart aches over it.

I’m sure the biggest contributing factor is the lack of sleep.  I slept maybe 3 hours a night this week (thank you quantum! and thanks for your awesome words about me being done with the exam.  And unfortunately 20+ hours is the norm for upper level physics and math classes.  Which is why I roll my eyes when humanities majors complain haha!) and when I did get some sleep it was restless (thank you allergies!).  I’m feeling a bit crabby and emotional today, just because of not sleeping. In fact, despite not really having a solid relationship with my mom, when I called her about something small and then started balling she decided to drive down and take me out tonight.  And she should be here soon.  So I’m not proof-reading this. Oh well. Such is life sometimes.

But sleep is REALLY important.  So rather than bore you with more woe-is-me tales here’s a little blurb I wrote a very long time ago but never got around to posting, originally titled: Poppies Will Put Them To Sleep. Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

It’s definitely something that most people don’t get enough of.  Between really hectic work/school schedules and social obligations (aka my drinking on school nights during the semester haha) it’s really tough to get in a training regime nevermind unwinding with a good book, bamf television show or unwinding in some capacity. I think I’ve read that the average American sleeps only 6 or 7  hours a night which is a reduction of 1-2 hours in the past 20 years and a more significant reduction compared to 100 years ago (the exact figure escapes my mind).

But sleep is really important.  The average person sleeps for about a third of his or her life! Sleep deprivation is associated with many dangers both psychological and physical (and behavioral.  Who wants to be around a cranky sleep deprived person?!). Sleep is actually an active process and not just the absence of being awake: when you sleep there is all your neurons are firing at full force and hormones being released, so it’s kind of like being awake but the difference is the change in type of activity that the neurons are doing.  Sleep is for the brain and that is reflected in said change in activity.

When you’re awake the important things that the brain directs neurons to do are: breathing, keeping you’re heart beating, digesting, movement.  You know the stuff that keeps you alive. But when you’re asleep the brain directs neurons to heal. The exact reason / mechanism we sleep is unknown but there are a couple of proposals that are suggested such as:

• Releasing hormones, specifically growth hormone (GH), which repairs muscles and replaces dead worn out cells. This includes the immune system.
• Allows the brain to repair itself from icky by-products built up during the day that it couldn’t get rid of because it was so busy.  Our muscles, for example, just make new cells to replace damaged ones but the brain doesn’t regenerate itself so damage must be cleaned up.
• Lets the brain play “catch-up” and restore the energy sources in the brain that have become depleted during wakefulness.
• Sleep allows neural pathways to regain sensitivity.  When we’re awake our neurons are constantly being attacked by neurotransmitters (NT).  This is a good thing because NTs direct the brain signals to muscles, organs etc  but over the course of the day the neurons themselves become desensitized to NTs and sleep resets that.
• Learning and memory.  Some researchers believe that sleep is important in allowing the body to accommodate the chemical and structural changes needed to create memories.  For example infants need LOTS of sleep and their brain are in a state of change because they’re growing and older people’s brains are pretty much set up structurally and don’t need as much sleep.
• Integrating daytime experiences. Life is so complicated and there’s only so much information that the brain can catch the first time around.  Sleep might be the chance where new pathways are connected between information.  “Sleep on it” anyone?

But how much is enough?

The common number thrown around is 8 hours – although there is no magic number.  Like amount of food needed each day and how fast you can run everything is individual.  For athletes more is needed and I’ve heard that for runners you need one minute for every mile per week you run extra.  Personally I’ve always needed 9 hours to function and feel my best.  Unfortunately I *can* get my body to adapt to less (remember those weeks last semester where I was only sleeping 4 hours a night?) but I don’t feel my best and my mental sharpness — while not gone — isn’t quite there.  I feel a bit off.

I’ve read (but never had the time to actually do this) that to determine the amount of sleep that’s right for you is to basically take a vacation, not set an alarm and sleep.  The morning when you wake up feeling refreshed (not sleep hungover like the first few days will likely be) then you’ve found your number.  Unfortunately many of us sleep-deprived people don’t have the time to do this.  Otherwise we wouldn’t be sleep deprived already!

What does this have to do with running specifically?

Well a lot.  If you don’t have enough sleep then you’re going to feel tired.  Duh.  And then you can’t get the maximum out of a workout.  I can’t even imagine running a hard tempo on very little sleep (although I’m sure I’ve done it).

There’s also the little factor of GH, which I mentioned above. It stimulates growth of muscles ie) it increases muscle mass.  As an athlete this is something that we want because when our muscle mass increases we become stronger and can lift more weights or run faster.  And who doesn’t want that? If you shortchange yourself on sleep then repairing your muscles will take a long time and you’ll need a longer bout of recovery time between hard sessions.

The take home message?

Sleep is good and necessary.  By skimping on sleep people are skimping on their health.  For an athlete, not only is health involved but performance is affected too.  Runners are typically very driven people so why allow a controllable factor to handicap maximum achievement?

And check out this giveaway from Evan and one from Sophia