About Jamie Scott
Jamie Scott is a registered Personal Trainer and a Nutritionist. He consults to a wide variety of athletes, writing strength and conditioning and performance nutrition programmes for them. And he is the manager of the up and coming Platinum Sport, a Christchurch fitness centre geared toward everyone who rides.
E: jamie[at]platinumsport.co.nz
P: 021 324 846
| While there are all the usual discussions on who has the best training theory or which is the best nutritional strategy, the one constant in getting the best out of yourself is making sure you are getting enough good quality sleep. Indeed a lack of sleep is one of the single biggest killers to performance at any level.
While on a ride with the AB's manager prior to the World Cup, we were discussing some of the cool things they were doing regarding their training. They were monitoring food, training, & sleep & found that poor sleep had the single largest impact on each individuals performance... so maybe the guys were just a bit tired in that 1/4 final 
Sleep helps you to restore and rejuvenate many body functions:
Memory and learning – Sleep seems to organise memories, as well as help you to recover memories. After you learn something new, sleep may solidify the learning in your brain.
Mood enhancement and social behaviors - The parts of the brain that control emotions, decision-making, and social interactions slow down dramatically during sleep, allowing optimal performance when awake. REM sleep seems especially important for a good mood during the day. Tired people are often cranky and easily frustrated.
Nervous system – Some sleep experts suggest that neurons used during the day repair themselves during sleep. When we experience sleep deprivation, neurons are unable to perform effectively, and the nervous system is impaired. We know that the nervous dictates the power of our muscles.
Immune system – Without adequate sleep, the immune system becomes weak, and the body becomes more vulnerable to infection and disease (take note Fergie).
Growth and development – Growth hormones are released during sleep, and sleep is vital to proper physical and mental development.
More recently a lack of sleep, particularly deep sleep has been implicated in weight gain. This is a combination of specific hormones being released that effectively break the body's lean muscle mass down (increased cortisol/decreased GH & testosterone). Alongside this, the lack of energy often leads to poor food choices as you try to prop flagging energy levels back up. Blood sugar control also becomes compromised. All of these aspects compound each other & you can see how even only a few days of poor sleep can send everything spiraling out of control. As weight goes up, sleep can be further disturbed.
When I was personal training full time a few years ago, I could never figure out why I could get up at 5am for a 6am client & be fine, but if I got up at 7am for a later start I would feel absolutely hammered despite more sleep. On nights where my sleep was broken, I noticed that I would wake up in ~90 minute intervals.
Traditional recommendations have been to get ~8 hours sleep per night. Some people seem to get away with less, others needing more. It would seem however that time spent asleep is far less important than the number of sleep cycles achieved each night. And as it turns out, the average sleep cycle length is ~90 minutes long. A sleep cycle consists of several discrete stages:
Stage 1 - When you first fall asleep, you are in Stage 1 sleep (Drowsiness). Stage 1 lasts just five or ten minutes. Eyes move slowly under the eyelids, and muscle activity slows down. You are easily awakened during Stage 1 sleep.
Stage 2 - Next, you go into Stage 2 sleep (Light Sleep). In Stage 2, eye movements stop, heart rate slows, and body temperature decreases.
Stages 3 & 4 - Then you enter Stages 3 and 4 (Deep Sleep). During stages 3 and 4, you are difficult to awaken. People who are awakened during Deep Sleep do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes after they wake up. Children may experience bed wetting, night terrors, or sleepwalking during Deep Sleep.
REM sleep - At about 70 to 90 minutes into your sleep cycle, you enter REM sleep. You usually have three to five REM episodes per night. Your eyes jerk rapidly in various directions under your eyelids, thus the name Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Sleep. It is during REM sleep that both guys & girls get their "morning wood". 
The first sleep cycles each night contain relatively short REM periods and long periods of deep sleep. As the night progresses, REM sleep periods increase in length while deep sleep decreases. By morning, people spend nearly all their sleep time in stages 1, 2, and REM.
While traditionally a lot of research focus has been on understanding REM sleep, deep sleep is perhaps the most vital stage, as it is the first stage that the brain attempts to recover when we are sleep deprived. If we do not get adequate deep sleep, we experience the strongest effects of sleep deprivation.
Deep sleep allows the brain to go on a little vacation needed to restore the energy we expend during our waking hours. Blood flow decreases to the brain in this stage, and redirects itself towards the muscles, restoring physical energy. Research also shows that immune functions increase during deep sleep.
What I was finding with my own sleep patterns was getting up at 5am meant I was getting up from the lighter stages of sleep, while sleeping in for an extra 60 minutes means I was being disturbed from deeper sleep by the alarm clock and feeling rubbish for the rest of the day as a result.
Now that I have mapped out my sleep cycle length, I can manipulate the times at which I go to bed & wake up in order to best capitalise on this. On the days where I open the gym up, I could probably get away with not having the alarm go off until 5.15am. However, 4.30am is the end of a sleep cycle for me so I get up then. Counting back, other cycles end at 3am, 1.30am, 12pm, & 10.30pm. And this makes sense as no matter what time I go to bed - normally aim for 9:30-10pm, I will begin to fall asleep around 10.30 & normally wake up around midnight & so on if I have "broken" sleep. This gives me 4 cycles (6 hours) on days I work at the gym, but I can aim for 5 (7.5 hours) or 6 cycles (9 hours) on "sleep in" days.
This is also consistent with many other peoples experiences & consistent with often feeling hammered if you over-sleep & you awake mid cycle, e.g. 10 hours.
From the Center for Applied Cognitive Studies (http://centacs.com)
"Studies show that the length of sleep is not what causes us to be refreshed upon waking. The key factor is the number of complete sleep cycles we enjoy. Each sleep cycle contains five distinct phases, which exhibit different brain- wave patterns. For our purposes, it suffices to say that one sleep cycle lasts an average of 90 minutes: 65 minutes of normal, or non-REM (rapid eye movement), sleep; 20 minutes of REM sleep (in which we dream); and a final 5 minutes of non-REM sleep. The REM sleep phases are shorter during earlier cycles (less than 20 minutes) and longer during later ones (more than 20 minutes). If we were to sleep completely naturally, with no alarm clocks or other sleep disturbances, we would wake up, on the average, after a multiple of 90 minutes--for example, after 4 1/2 hours, 6 hours, 7 1/2 hours, or 9 hours, but not after 7 or 8 hours, which are not multiples of 90 minutes. In the period between cycles we are not actually sleeping: it is a sort of twilight zone from which, if we are not disturbed (by light, cold, a full bladder, noise), we move into another 90-minute cycle. A person who sleeps only four cycles (6 hours) will feel more rested than someone who has slept for 8 to 10 hours but who has not been allowed to complete any one cycle because of being awakened before it was completed.... "
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