Afternoon hike 45 min at Bent Creek
This is my third night of 9hrs of sleep. Yet this morning I said to Corey, "Is it bad that I'm excited today is Friday so that I can potentially sleep 10.5?"
It's funny how priorities shift. Sleep has gradually improved since opening business in 2009. That first year was insane. We survived on lots of coffee and adrenaline/determination to make things work. The inexperienced business owners that we were we took the approach of being open for as many hours possible to accommodate as many that may have interest as possible. We did not have 5am classes at that point, but 6am Mon-Fri and evenings had 6:30pm classes. So it was rare that we were away from more than 12 hours. We were known for sleeping in the corner of the gym that first year.
Not to mention I was also still convinced that I was "naturally a night owl" as I still hear from many people. For as long as I remembered I had enjoyed staying up at night. It was my "time for myself" to relax, reflect, journal. With this mentality regardless of working crazy hours I would still occasionally decide that I deserved some time to myself and stay up til midnight or one to then sleep sometimes as few as 3-4.5 hours and work 12+ the next day. Some of you reading this may think, "I do that" and I'm telling you it's not healthy, especially not long term.
Since college when I learned that the body tends to function on 90 minute sleep cycles I've made an effort to time my to bed/alarm time to 90 minute intervals. I found that I feel better if I sleep 7.5 hrs or 9 vs if I get up at the 8hr mark I feel groggy because my body was mid sleep cycle. Early in business this was 4.5-6 hrs of sleep & we'd crash hard on the weekends for 9+.
Even over the summer of 2011 we were regularly sleeping 7.5, but probably once/wk we'd miss the cut off and stay up til 10 which results in 6 hrs.
When my sleep suffers my training suffers. I think the only way I was able to make consistent progress over the past 3 years since I started business was #1 b/c my training age for weightlifting and the events involved in the sport of fitness were relatively low. BUT more so because #2 I regularly listened to my body and if I wasn't motivated to train, I didn't train. (This is quite the opposite of when I was in college abusing my body with little sleep and training like a mad person. No surprise that I was regularly injured, but too stubborn to give myself a rest. Too afraid that'd I'd get "fat". That's for another day.)
My whole point here is that I noticed a dramatic shift in priorities this past fall when I started paying for distance coaching. I acknowledged how many days I was resting due to inadequate sleep & became concerned about having the energy/motivation to get my training done. However, I'm thankful to say that this has been a non-issue. I'm feeling good even on my rest days.
Better yet, the hours that I am awake are more enjoyable. A couple Sundays ago Corey & I were out hiking and I told him that I used to stay up late because, like a child, I felt like I was going to miss out on something. However, with more sleep I feel more fulfilled and I am definitely more productive during those waking hours.
I encourage you to spend a month maximizing the amount of hours you sleep each week BEFORE midnight and see how you feel. I'd love to hear about your experiences!
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