This post is partially inspired by Lola’s obnoxious snoring during my mobility workshop this Saturday!
Lately I’ve been engaged in several conversations with people at the gym regarding sleep. Most of these have been with shift-workers. I wanted to write this article to help explain my personal method for trying to limit the damage that shift-work inevitably causes.
Current research shows that the average adult requires 7-9 hours of sleep per night. The most recent of these studies shows that most adults are probably ok with 7 hours per night. Unfortunately the study (as far as I can tell) does not control for physical activity. Based on personal experience and conversations with other coaches and athletes, it is my belief that a person involved in regular strength training likely requires closer to 8 or 9 hours of sleep per night. A hard-charging “full-time” athlete might even get 8 hours at night and a siesta in the afternoon, getting closer to 10 hours of sleep per 24 hour period.
That was the type of schedule I was following in June 2011 when I received a job offer from the City of Winnipeg to be a Paramedic. By mid-July I was on the streets in an ambulance which regularly worked until 2AM. It didn’t take long before I walked into the gym one day to perform a simple workout: 3 x 1000m row @ 90% with 5 minute rests. After a decent warm-up I made my first attempt. About 600m into the first row my heart rate was jacked up and my “90%” performance was becoming extremely difficult.
I began to read some of the research, and one thing I caught on to was a concept of “sleep deficit”. The concept, although still debated to some degree in the sleep research community, is that when you do not sleep to your body’s basal sleep requirement (which varies per individual) on any given night, you accumulate a sleep debt. This sleep debt is paid back hour-for-hour.
Knowing that my sleep schedule prior to when I started the job had me sleeping an average 8-10 hours per 24 hour period, I became curious how much sleep I was getting on average with the new job. I began tracking “mattress time” and found that on average I was getting about 7 hours per 24 hour period.
I considered that I was NOT feeling great at this average of 7 hours and decided that I was going to see what would happen if I got myself up to an average of 8 hours.
So, based on my understanding of the research, this is the system I came up with:
1. I will average a MINIMUM of 8 hours of sleep per 24 hour period
2. If I sleep less than 8 hours in my main “sleep session”, I will consider that a sleep debt that needs to be paid off.
3. Every hour of sleep over 8 hours or any naps I take can be used to pay off the sleep debt. If there is no sleep debt and I sleep more than 8 hours, then there is no going into the “black”… It’s just looked at as required sleep.
In terms of sleep “hygiene”, especially during a day sleep I do the following:
1 – black out insulation inserts in the windows dampen sounds from outside and block light
2 – black out curtains over the inserts maximally block out sunlight – the only sunlight comes in around the doorframe and that is minimized with hallway curtains
3 – use ear plugs, eye mask and a white noise machine (I found fans were the right kind of noise, but am I the only one who wakes up extra thirsty after sleeping by a fan all night??)
4 – kids and wife usually leave the house or try “quiet” activities (during day sleeps)
5 – keep the temperature cool
This system has been working beautifully for me. But it requires that I make sleep a priority, and sometimes that is really hard. However, the long term effects of sleep deprivation are not pretty… so if I am going to maximally reap the benefits of the 4 days on 4 days off schedule I enjoy at my workplace, I am going to need to pay the price of making sure I am getting adequate pillow time.
My recommendations for you (whether you are a shift-worker or not) are:
1 – Make sure you are getting 7-9 hours of sleep per night
2 – Do everything you can to improve sleep quality
3 – Somehow, do it all without stressing about it… because one thing that never helped me fall asleep was stressing that I was not doing it fast enough
Sweet dreams!
Any questions? Email brendan@sublimesc.com.
Some good reads:
http://sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need
http://www.helpguide.org/articles/sleep/how-much-sleep-do-you-need.htm
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-can-you-catch-up-on-sleep/
http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/Repaying-your-sleep-debt.shtml
http://hbr.org/2006/10/sleep-deficit-the-performance-killer
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/important-sleep-habits
