Monday, April 28, 2008

SEEKING SLEEP SOLUTIONS

I’m having serious problems with my sleep and its affecting my training.

I’ve noticed that every time I become really focussed on losing body fat my sleep suffers. I eat really healthy, drink much less, if any at all alcohol, I train regularly and I should feel so much better but lack of sleep leaves me feeling like a washed out rag.

I’m exhausted by bed time and make sure my lights are out by 10pm. I fall asleep quickly but then wake during the night and I can literally feel all the sleep leaving my eyes. Then I lie in bed or get up and read as I get very restless. I can usually get back to sleep around 5am but by then I’ve lost 2-3 hours of my precious sleep time.

This is what happened last night and after waking around 2am and being up reading I went back to bed for whatever sleep I could get. And yes I turned my alarm off and didn’t do my planned run. I think I dozed from about 5 to 6.45 and then rushed around getting ready for work in record time (maybe that burnt a few more calories than usual LOL).

Last year as I was getting closer to comp time I was up during the night on most nights. Yes I was stressing a bit about getting lean enough and like clockwork it affected my sleep. Although I don’t feel like I’m stressing about it now, the pattern is very obvious.

Does anybody else have similar sleep issues? Why does this happen at a time when you’d think that all the good habits would contribute towards better sleep? I have nothing else in my life that’s causing me worry or stress.

Cheers

Magda

NEWSFLASH!!

I survived 5 days off work including a long weekend with two modest free meals (dinner and brunch), two glasses of wine, one mini home-made Anzac biscuit, no other sweets, no stuffing myself and no secret, mindless eating. I’m 2 kilos lighter today than what I was last Wednesday at the start of my mini-holiday. WOOHOO!! GO ME!!

11 comments:

Raechelle said...

Bravo on the loss-even over a holiday..very impressive!
As far as the sleep-it's a tough one-I've had problems here and there with days on end of waking in the middle of the night and not getting back to sleep-the trouble is your body starts to get in the habit-and you need to break that habit. Have you tried anything herbal like valerian-or "sleepy time" tea? Might be worth a shot.

Raechelle said...

Or deep breathing-maybe a meditation CD?

Kristy said...

Excellent results over the holiday Magda...

Anonymous said...

Well done on the holiday results, that's fantastic.

I have sleep issues as well, my problem is that i can't get to sleep it could be 1-2am before i start to drift off. I've been using a meditation CD i got off itunes to help get me off to sleep and it has helped to just chill me out.

Anonymous said...

Hello There!

I have problems sleeping too!! I'm off to the Dr next week to address this problem! Will let you know the outcome!

Em said...

Congratulations hun on losing weight even on holidays hehe that is a massive achievement :)

With sleep have you tried sipping a warm cup of chamomile before bed and perhaps meditation or relaxing to some nice music or a nice hot bath or shower?

I have sleep issues but mine are in the form of my baby boy :)

Have a great week hun:)
Em:)

Magda said...

Thanks for your comments and tips guys. My problem is made difficult by the fact that I fall asleep easily because I get up early, train on most days, work full-time and have a family to care for. I'm buggered at the end of the day and after a very brief pseudo meditation session I'm off in the land of nod....no problems. But I cant seem to stay there. And its always worse when I'm quite focussed on my healthy eating and weight loss. Perhaps eating crap every day actually has some merit .... (joke!!).

Thanks too for the positive feedback on my recent small success to maintain control over my holiday time. Its meant a lot to me.

Cheers

Magda

Miss Positive said...

Go Madga!! That is awesome work on the loss and the control!!

Thats terrible about the sleep situation - sorry I dont have any suggestions, my problems are more about not being able to fall asleep, for which I use meditation and relaxation... probably not much help to you!

Hope you get a long nights sleep soon.

Hilary xx

LizN said...

I would recommend setting up a bedtime ritual. I have been having a lot of trouble sleeping too and this is what works for me.
1) Mug of warm milk about 30 minutes prior to bed and some Natural Nutrition Sleep Ezy.
2) Go to bed. Meditation can help too.

Hugs
Liz

Magda said...

Thanks for your comments and suggestions Hilary and Liz. Funnily enough I slept through last night (it must have been from just being even more exhausted than usual). I really appreciate your tips and suggestions guys. (May have to soon resort to the natural sleeping aids I think).

Cheers

Magda

Charlotte Orr said...

Hi Magda, I read somewhere that if you have problems falling asleep, your training intensity may be too high. If you feel like you can never sleep enough, your training volume may be too high. Maybe cut down on your training volume a little and see if that helps?