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INSPIRATION
Endurance
Q&A
Run ragged
trying to cope with just
5-6 hours of interrupted
or restless sleep.
When we experience
consecutive nights of
curtailed sleep, the
consequences quickly
pile up.
Health &
performance
issues
The amount of quality sleep I get each
night has suffered over the past few weeks due
to long working hours and other commitments.
I’m also struggling to fall asleep after working
late and hardly ever wake up feeling rested.
What’s worse is that it’s now starting to affect
my performance during my marathon training.
I’m worried that this will affect my race-day
performance. What can I do to get my sleep
back on track?
Bongani
Adequate sleep, both in terms of quality and
duration, is crucial for optimal health, recovery
and performance. Ongoing scientific research
continues to affirm the need for good quality
sleep of at least 7-9 hours a night.
Unfortunately, life happens and we’re often left
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Ride For Sight | 15 February 2020
There are significant
long-term implications
associated with
chronic sleep deprivation, also
known as cumulative sleep debt. While your
general and cognitive health will suffer, another
issue, as you state, is reduced sporting and
exercise performance.
The main reason why a lack of sleep impacts
on the quality of your training is a lack of
adequate recovery between sessions. This
happens because the process of muscle repair
and the restoration of the immune, nervous,
hormonal and muscular systems happen
predominantly during periods of deep sleep.
This means you’re probably in a state of under-
recovery.
The implications of cumulative sleep debt
are extensive. Studies show that it can slow
glucose metabolism by 30-40% due to an
over-active central nervous system, which
can wreak havoc with your energy levels, both
throughout the day and during training.
Inadequate sleep will also trigger the endocrine
(hormonal) system to produce more of the
catabolic stress hormone cortisol, which may
interfere with tissue and muscle repair. Over
time this could reduce your body’s response
to training and possibly lead to overtraining
(through under-recovery) and injury.
Other hormones affected by a lack of sleep
include important substances required to
optimise muscle growth and improve strength,
such as growth hormone.
Studies have also linked sleep deprivation with
a decrease in endurance and an increase in
ratings of perceived exertion. This means that
in a sleep-deprived state, you’re likely to feel
more fatigued than you actually are, which is
another factor that is potentially impacting your
performance during training.
Rediscover blissful sleep
To combat the adverse affects of sleep
deprivation you need to first string a few nights
of good quality sleep together. You can’t
technically ‘catch up’ on the lost sleep, but
improving sleep quality and duration over a
period of a few weeks will help you feel a lot
better.
Obviously, this will require that you go to bed
earlier, but that isn’t always possible when