Sleep

by Mark Rippetoe | July 18, 2023

Remember when you were little and went to bed and woke up the next morning without once having to get up to pee and then try to figure out how to go back sleep instead of worrying whether or not you needed to sharpen the lawnmower blade or change the air filters again or mail in your medicare premium or buy some more eggs or ask the electricity salesman if your contract was about to expire?

I barely remember that. But about twice a year I'll go to bed very tired and stay asleep for 8 solid uninterrupted hours, and wake up actually feeling pretty good. Most of the time, I wake up feeling like I need to take a nap. I'm pretty beat up from a lot of injuries, and somewhere along the way I've lost the ability to just relax and turn off the input.

Sleep is the most powerful anabolic agent for the trainee. Doesn't matter how much attention you pay to nutrition or supplementation or drugs – if you are not sleeping well or enough, your training cannot be optimal. But there are steps you can take to improve it. I'm not going to repeat the shit you've already heard: dark room, white noise and a fan keeping you cool, low-enough temperature that you need at least a top sheet, dog(s) under control, quiet neighbors, telephone ringer off, earplugs available when necessary – obvious things like that. But a few things come to mind.

First, if you have a shitty mattress, you will not be sleeping well. If you wake up with even mild back pain that was not there when you went to bed, you have a shitty mattress. It has to be firm enough to hold your ass level with your feet and shoulders all night. If you're trying to sleep on a cheap foam mattress, your priorities are skewed. A firm or extra firm hotel mattress is not that much money, and a night in a hotel on a firm mattress will inform your next purchase. Don't be stupid about this – a mattress is no place to save money, and sleep is really important. A decent mattress doesn't cost $3000, but it costs more than $300.

Second, make sure you can breathe after you fall asleep. Sleep apnea is a bad problem for lots of guys and some women. Doctors like to prescribe a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine for this. It essentially pushes air past a constricted airway into your lungs; it breathes for you. It has solved the problem of low O2 saturation (a bad situation if it lasts all night, causing you to wake up every 2 minutes or so) for many people, and it might be an option if sleep apnea is your problem.

It very mildly affects me – I have a badly deviated septum – and I have solved the problem with the nightly use of oxymetazoline (12-Hour Afrin) and a nasal steroid spray such as fluticasone propionate (Flonase), and sleeping on my side. This is seldom recommended by doctors, since both of these drugs are sold over-the-counter in pharmacies and at Walmart, although some of them understand why I do it. I have heard it said that oxymetazoline is addictive, but I have been using it to get to sleep for 30 years, and if I'm addicted, I'll skip the 12-Step Program and just go to bed. What about the alternative is better?

Also, it is absolutely offensive that buying a CPAP machine requires a prescription. If I can figure out how to ride a kick-start motorcycle from Wichita Falls to Cut Bank, Montana and back, I can figure out how to use a CPAP machine. And anyway, how would a person abuse a CPAP machine? Wait... don't answer that.

Third, eating before bed can be a problem. I have to be careful about the quantity and the spiciness of my evening meal. If you are prone to gastric reflux and you eat the wrong meal – or too much of the right meal – shortly before going to bed, you will have problems. It's better to eat a couple of hours before you lie down, if possible. I go to bed very late because I get home very late, so I usually eat right before bed. If I eat too much, or if I eat tomato sauce-based foods at night, I'm probably going to have problems. I think it's more the quantity, because I tend to eat too much (the food is good at my house), and the timing, since I eat so late at night. So, lunch tends to be the time of day I eat “challenging” foods. At least it should be.

Fourth, if you're in pain, it's hard to relax. I take some medications before bed, because my intention is to get to sleep and stay that way, and the judicious use of OTC medications is useful. To address the aforementioned beat-up-ness is I take two 500mg acetaminophen and two 220mg naproxen tablets. If I am worried about what I have eaten, I'll take a 20mg omeprazole and maybe a 20mg famotidine (since ranitidine has been withdrawn from the market for my own good), but this is not an every-night thing. On rare occasions – like once or twice a year – when I am in a great deal of pain or when I just really need to stay asleep for 9 hours, I may use a 10mg diazepam (Valium). And for the sake of completeness I must add that a couple of beers or a whiskey or two is not at all out of the ordinary.

This little ritual allows me to sleep fairly effectively, and since this is my purpose I don't really care what the medical community thinks about it. Two or three days without sleep is a huge obstacle for training progress, and let me assure you that it gets worse as you get older. It may cost some money, but once again, sleep is important.