Over sleeping

[Samuel_quinn]

Will more sleep always bring faster recovery or is there a cap to where more will no longer benefit? Assuming you are following a good program and are in a calorie surplus.

[Dalton Clark]

Like so many things in life, there can be too much of a good thing. I am still relatively new to Starting Strength (4 months), but I have realized a thing or two about sleep since I started. The best advice that I can give you - assuming you don't suffer from clinical depression - is to sleep as much as your body is telling you to. Don't roll over and try to go back to sleep 6 times thinking that 12 hours of sleep a night will accelerate your recovery. So the short answer is resting more than what you need to recover will not allow you to recover more. Especially when there is one crucial thing that you aren't doing when you are asleep: eating.

I've noticed that early on in the program I was able to get by with 7-8 hours of sleep. Now that I'm squatting something decent, there have been many nights where I slept 10-11 hours because well. . . that is what my body told me it needed.

[SteveL]

Like so many things in life, there can be too much of a good thing. I am still relatively new to Starting Strength (4 months), but I have realized a thing or two about sleep since I started. The best advice that I can give you - assuming you don't suffer from clinical depression - is to sleep as much as your body is telling you to. Don't roll over and try to go back to sleep 6 times thinking that 12 hours of sleep a night will accelerate your recovery. So the short answer is resting more than what you need to recover will not allow you to recover more. Especially when there is one crucial thing that you aren't doing when you are asleep: eating.

I've noticed that early on in the program I was able to get by with 7-8 hours of sleep. Now that I'm squatting something decent, there have been many nights where I slept 10-11 hours because well. . . that is what my body told me it needed.

I totally agree with this. If I oversleep I'm groggy the whole day. As long as I can get 7-8 hours I'm good. Of course I'm 60 so if your young you may need even more sleep.

[A Schenck]

Will more sleep always bring faster recovery or is there a cap to where more will no longer benefit? Assuming you are following a good program and are in a calorie surplus.

My understanding is that serious oversleeping (like 10+ hours) typically indicates a problem. Examples: someone who is oversleeping because the have accumulated a sleep debt from staying up late, or someone who has un-treated sleep apnea and is not getting quality sleep.