I dragged myself out of bed this morning. Literally dragged. It was 5.30am and the darkness was killing me. The alarm went off and nearly ejected full force through the window. It just wasn’t time.
Everyone else was snoring – even the dogs had made their way upstairs and avoided the ‘ejector boot’ in the middle of the night.
It was 3am. Or 2am I couldn’t make out. But whatever time it was, it wasn’t time to arise from the pit.
I felt groggy.
I felt like I had been drugged. I felt like I had been run over by a tank in the night and then bulldozed by a freight train.
Now I am pretty lucky this doesn’t normally happen. I am what is known as an early bird in the ranks. The kind of guy that you hear about and think ‘nutjob’.
I like it – the silence, the stillness, a cup of tea and a wee think about the day ahead. It brings calmness and a sense of inner peace to the day. I love to exercise as early as I can but with clients it is hard. Normally that happens a little later.
The first things first principle is a great old adage. If I exercise late in the day I find every excuse NOT to. In the morning – easy. No distractions, plenty of focus and time to think.
But at 5.30am, the alarm went off and I was ready to roll back over. Now for most this is a pretty rare occurrence.
You see I am all for quality of sleep over quantity. Study after study will demonstrate that quality of sleep will out-trump your quantity.
I can take your 5 hours of deep restful lullaby esque sleep over your 12 hours of tossing and turning, pee-stops and vivid dreams any day.
But when you get a lack of both. Good luck in the cup. Boy life can get tough then.
It is brutal to try and stick to anything. Breakfast? Good luck. Your appetitie is suppressed and still looking for more sleep – not tucking into your eggs.
Sugar cravings? Through the roof. Serotonin becomes depleted and your
natural feel good factor becomes a distant dream.
Exercise? yeah right! You have literally run out of steam. Those batteries that keep you going through the day only have half charge. Time to stick them back in the socket for a couple of more hours.
So why do we insist on looking at smashing ourselves up in the gym when the first thing that drives everything through the day is what happened previously?
Why do we insist on smashing ourselves into the ground when we have had the night of hell and feel like we have been up keeping surveillance over the Viet-cong?
It makes NO sense my fitness brethren.
Take a step back.
If your sleep is driving you demented then do something about it. Now.
Forget the nutrition. Forget the hard core training regime or the need to guilt trip to the gym.
You need sleep.
(No – that does not mean executing the children)
For me I had dinner WAYYYY too late coupled with too much rice and logging on just before bed. IDIOT disclaimer. I was still staring at the
ceiling when I laid down. Even my old meditation track couldn’t cut it.
BOOM – that’s me not sleeping right tonight.
Have a look at your lifestyle folks?
5 out of 7 nights sleep should be good. That leaves 2 nights to burn the midnight oil if you feel the need.
There are loads of things you can do but the main thing is to establish a ROUTINE. Something that fits with YOU.
(No point in hitting the hay early when you haven’t seen your wife all day – how to kill a marriage for example)
There is so much benefit in exploring your sleep patterns and understanding their importance. It is something that I always ask my
clients.
More often than not it is met with a yawn and ‘yeah you maybe right’.
John Lark is owner of Sphere Fitness. Log on and subscribe to his daily
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