After I mentioned in one of my articles that I noticed the benefits of getting more sleep over a two-month stretch, I had quite a few people ask for more information on sleep. Sleep is a topic that has fascinated me since I first started competing in bodybuilding shows. As the contest preparation went on and I got leaner, it would seem that I needed less and less sleep and I was able to ‘pop’ out of bed in the mornings like someone shot adrenaline into my arm. This went on throughout five different contest preps and, mind you, by the end of preparation, I was getting up at 3:30 a.m. to enjoy a pot of coffee and listen to some music.
The same thing happened last year when I played around with a cycle diet and took my body fat level down to seven percent. There seemed to be something about being lean or maybe deprived that made it so I needed less sleep or couldn’t sleep as much. Anyhow, the curiosity switch was flipped and sleep still seems to be a wide open frontier. (There was also, I believe, a New York Times article this year about the Sleepless Elite—certain people, supposedly including Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, and others, who only need about two hours of sleep per night. Scientists are actually studying the gene that allows this to happen. This is without detriment to performance either. Imagine!)
First, let’s get one thing straight—I’m one of the biggest hypocrites when it comes to sleeping enough. I went for a two-month stretch last year in which I got eight hours per night and I felt wonderful (I wrote about this in past articles). I normally average around six hours per night, the thinking being that I need to outwork others during those other two hours. The funny thing is I’ve found that I get just as much done during the periods when I’m able to sleep eight hours a night for a few days straight.
Because I used to get ripped and maintain muscle while getting stronger during my contest prep, sleep needs to be for more than just tissue repair. Doing contest prep is one of the most grueling physical things that you can put your body through and it should have required more sleep, not less. (However, part of my prep plan was sleeping with three layers of sweats on to raise my body temperature and stay awake longer to make sure my metabolism stayed higher for longer rather than slowing down during sleep. Maybe this is bogus, but you can’t blame me for experimenting.)
Tim Ferriss discusses how there needs to be more of a reason than tissue regeneration for sleep. According to Sapolsky (2004), many scientists and doctors believe we need sleep so the brain can replenish its energy supplies. The brain weighs only about three percent of our total body weight, yet it consumes 25 percent of the total body energy expenditure! Deep wave sleep is when energy restoration occurs (stages three and four REM). The fact that the brain uses sleep to restore its energy supplies shouldn’t be overlooked when it comes to student athletes and athletes in general—for academic reasons and decision making during the game. You don’t want your starting quarterback playing in the conference championship while working on five hours of sleep.
I remember those days when I was competing and reading and listening to some Poliquin stuff about how your room should be like a bat cave—completely dark. He cited studies in which a light shined on the bottom of your foot could actually disturb the hormonal output during sleep. I also recall him mentioning something about wearing spandex and sleeping quality and recovery. So I went through a phase where I wore my spandex pants and shirts to bed (kind of like a kid and his onesie).
It’s very important that you don’t watch television or do things right before bed that stimulate the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). Once in a while, you might stay up for a late game, but you will have no shot at entering deep wave sleep while the SNS is cranking. I always have my athletes stretch, meditate, go for a light walk, or listen to some soothing music before bed. These types of activities help to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). In order for recovery to take place, you must be in PNS dominant mode. (Note, you don’t want to constantly be in a PNS state. Don’t read this and go overboard.)
I remember hearing Buddy Morris say that the Russians used to have their athletes go to the beach and walk barefoot for four hours when they thought they might be getting overtrained to stimulate the PNS and decrease the activity of the SNS. Before I turn this into two different articles, be sure to get into a PNS state before bed. To further drive home this point, one study took people to altitude without letting them acclimate. Of course, this put them into a SNS dominant state, which made it literally impossible for them to go to sleep. Imagine trying to sleep with your heart rate through the roof.
If you or your athletes are depriving themselves of sleep, a decrease in stress hormones doesn’t occur. Instead, they increase. To make matters worse, a lack of sleep will cause both growth hormones and sex hormones to decrease. The worst kind of sleep to get is too little sleep that is unpredictably fragmented. The best kind of sleep to get is in a dark room with a temperature of 67–70°F with a natural wake up without an alarm clock. Waking up without an alarm clock isn’t practical for most people, so you can look into something called a natural clock, which gradually produces more light as the morning nears. Another interesting thing to note is that whether you are waking up naturally or you have to get up earlier than you would like, your body somehow knows and your stress hormones will begin to rise about an hour before you awake. A magnesium deficiency can also cause poor sleep. It is good practice to supplement with magnesium, as most people are deficient and it will improve performance in the gym.
One other thing I found out through self-observation and through asking my athletes is if you hit the snooze button even once, it throws you off for the rest of the day. You won’t wake up nearly as easily the second, third, or fourth time it goes off and so on. I’m not sure if this affects sleep cycles or certain hormonal or neurotransmitters, but keep it in mind. This means keep the alarm on the other side of the room, and once you get up to get it, stay out of bed!
I know I put a lot of information in here, but you can pick and choose what interests you and what you can put to practice. You and your athletes should aim for 8–10 hours per night of quality sleep (this means don’t leave the television on or get hammered and pass out). Do yourself the favor and stop reading this. Get to sleep!
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Kyle Newell is the owner of Newell Strength, located in central New Jersey. To find out more about Kyle’s training insights, visit 
Ben Franklin was known to fall asleep in meetings. Sounds like it affected his performance in that regard, not trying to discredit any of his accomplishments.
Interesting to note about the alarm clock however, I have mine set to go off at three different time periods, and usually get up at the second one, sometimes I have to be getting up at 330 in the morning and I do that as an assurance, but that could be interesting if that actually has merit, might have to try and be more disciplined with the first alarm.
I’m curious to know if the author has any recommendations regarding sleep promoting supplements for those who cannot sleep well, regardless of how badly their bodies need it. I’m a terrible sleeper and in place of pharmaceuticals I tend to use valerian root, though it still doesn’t always produce satisfactory sleep.
Awesome article,
As a college student, I often find it hard to get enough sleep. Going to try to take some of your ideas to get to bed more effectively.
Great Article.
One concept that your readers will benefit from is the idea of “Sleep Debt”. I first came across this at a Stanford medical conference. I, like many others, used to think if I had to go 4-5 days with 4-5hrs sleep each day, then I could simply get a good nights sleep and be OK.
Not so according to the research from the Stanford School of Medicine. According to their research we all have our majic number of hours of sleep that our bodies need. This number is specific to us. Mine is about 7.5-8 hrs. The concept of sleep debt essentially states that if I go several (4) days with only 5hrs sleep per day then I have a sleep debt of about 8-12 hours. A single night of 8-9 hrs of sleep will not do. My performance will be affected, to some degree, until the sleep debt is corrected. My application of this concept to my rotaing schedule as an Emergency Physician has shown a great deal of validity of this concept.
One more key point on sleep that is very important for this readership is Sleep Apnea. If you snore, wake up multiple times per night, wake up not feeling well rested, are sleepy during the day…then you likely have sleep Apnea. Go get a fromal sleep study, or at least home oximetry study.
Also, although most sleeping aids (incuding alcohol) may help you fall asleep, they will interfere with normal sleep cycles.
My Advice for Restorative Sleep.
1. No cafeine with-in 4-6 hours of intended sleep.
2. Minimize alcohol 4 hours prior to sleep.
3. Keep room dark and cool. Quiet or white noise
4. Try to keep the same sleep cycle. Learn what your body needs for sleep.
If you are still having problems get a sleep study. Also, remember that sleep difficulty can be a sign of overtraining.
For anyone who does late night computing I suggest a free program called F.lux.
This has really done wonders for helping me fall asleep at night.
Justin R – I absolutely swear by the combo of Biotest’s Elite Pro Minerals in conjunction with Biotest’s Z12 about an hour before bed. Absolutely amazing sleep!
Any advice for athletes who can simply not fall asleep? I struggle to fall asleep before 2 am most nights, despite waking up at 4:45 am for practice or running.
Magnesium oil or cream applied 40 minutes before sleep can be like a horse tranquilisor. I use it most evenings.
A couple really good sleep aids that myself and my clients find effective.
If you wake up at all throughout the night to pee, take 2.8 to 3 grams of inositol. You won’t get up.
If your CNS is still active, take 3 grams of taurine, which is an inhibitory amino acid.
9 to 10mg of melatonin will help for about a month, then your body might get used to it. But it will increase total and free testosterone a lot.
9 grams of magnesium glycinate will lower catecholimines and also make you very insulin sensitive. Take half with dinner and the other half before bed. The lower your magnesium levels are, the lower the dosage needed to knock you out.
i noticed the same thing when i dropped to very low bodyfat and my clients have reported the same thing. very weird, all of the sudden there are too many hours in a day!
Thanks for the support guys. Dr. King, let me know if we can ever chat, I’d like to pick your brain some. I never really have trouble going to sleep, but I do take a supp once in a while, I can’t recall the exact name, but I will get it to you when I get home. Poliquin also has a few good sups on his site. Frank, I am looking into this issue and hope to have a solid concrete answer soon! Thanks guys-Kyle
9 grams of most magnesium will also make you crap your brains out. Even if mg glycinate is supposed to be the “gentle” version.
I really like the tip on having the alarm on the other side of the room.People with snooze issues will benefit from this.
I second the magnesium oil and zma for sleeping and another one thats good with supposed links to higher growth hormone production is GABA. It makes your mind go blank for those of us who are kept awake cause their mind is racing. The powder is cheap in bulk too.
Interesting Article.
Have you heard of polyphasic sleep schedule, such as the Uberman cycle? In comparison to monophasic sleep schedule (usually 8 hours of sleep in one chunk). I’ve been researching information on the polyphasic sleep schedule and although there isn’t any real hard evidence, it’s said that those ‘certain people’ that you mentioned (Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison) were possibly polyphasic sleepers.
The Uberman cycle consists of taking 20 minute naps every four hours within a twenty four hour time period. So, you basically take 6 naps a day and live off of 2 hours of sleep. After the adaption period (usually the first week) of sleep deprivation you come to force/trick your brain into dropping right in REM sleep within each of those naps. Basically, you receive as much REM as any monophasic sleeper, you just don’t go through all the different sleep cycles.
I’m no master on any of this information, of course. But i’m very interested in the subject and plan on switching sleep schedules here in the next week. I’ve body building for the 6 months also. I’m not going to be doing any strenuous workouts during my adaption period (to make the adaption period easier for me), but eventually i’m going to start working to where i’m at now with bodybuilding, slowly after the first couple of weeks.
You state that deep wave sleep is when energy restoration occurs (i.e REM). Since i’ll be receiving as much REM as a monphasic sleeper just not as many hours of sleep, I feel like it would be justifiable to be able to continue working out as hard as I do.
Just curious as to what you think about the information in this comment. I’m excited to switch up my sleeping schedule. But i’ve been curious as to how it will affect my workout schedule in the future. Polyphasic sleepers that i’ve followed claim that working out isn’t a problem for them. But i’m also sure that none of them are body builders or work out nearly as much as a body builder would.
Thanks for the information!
Dillon