[MotobecaneLeChampion]

Anyone else have this problem?

Frequently, after a grueling ride or run, I awake one or more times during the night and lie awake for an hour or longer. This usually happens sometime between 1:00 and 3:00, after I've slept for a couple of hours. When it happens, I feel like I'm being forced to stay awake while my body (and brain) are screaming for recovery sleep. I feel like crap for 3 days or more whenever this happens.

Alternately, when I sleep well after a ride I recover nicely.

I sometimes wonder whether the body's recovery mechanisms cause the insomnia, or if all the adrenaline, endorphins, etc. that get produced during the ride cause it.

Any ideas?

 

[Creakyknees]

Yes, happens to me after especially hard rides.

In my case it's also associated with night sweats. My guess is, metabolism is on overdrive for recovery (and burning the recovery fuel we all eat after a hard ride)

But, after a ride like that I'm going to be toast for several days anyway, so it evens out and I eventually catch up.

... one more reason to not over-do it in training... it actually sets you back for quite a while. Leave some in the tank.

 

[pretender]

... one more reason to not over-do it in training... it actually sets you back for quite a while. Leave some in the tank.

This is an excellent point.

 

[petalpower]

I'm just a newb, but I have noticed the quality of my sleep has declined since I've started riding harder this season ( just started riding in August ). Not necessarily after hard efforts, but in general. There have been a few nights where I was up for 1-3 hours, and ended up getting up entirely at 5am ( when I normally get up at 7am ).

With that said, I won my first crit last week!!

 

[allison]

I've had problems this season when carrying a lot of fatigue my body just doesn't fall asleep for days/week at a time (I do sleep, just lie awake a LOT), which obviously inhibits recovery, which makes it a much more vicious cycle...

 

[Infini]

I believe I do also wake up more often when I'm training hard. (Unless of course I do enough to get seriously fatigued, in which case I'll be out cold)

If you have the time, I believe you can counter this by just spending enough time laying down. Take a nap after the ride. Go to bed early. If you wake up and can't sleep, go eat something. Give yourself time to sleep in late. Even if you're not asleep, if you're able to just lay there and relax well it's much better than getting frustrated.

 

[steelbikerider]

I had the same problem after doing evening spin classes. I read where it could be that your core tempature is still elevated. Drinking lots of cold fluids has helped me along with stretching before going to bed.
P.S. no physiology background but lots of cycling background. Take it for what its worth.

 

[MarshallH1987]

whenever i ride until i got nothing left i can't sleep very well and my recovery sucks. Best sleep is when i've ridden hard but didn't do a full drain, usually sleep all night and wake up feeling rested.
Best money i ever spent was on a memory foam mattress and pillows.

 

[-dustin]

If I have a hard ride, I can expect to not fall asleep until 3am or so, regardless of what time I ride that day.

 

[Gatorback]

I'd suggest giving consideration to some basic yoga stuff, the relaxation/cool down poses you can find in most yoga books or videos, for anyone having trouble sleeping. I rarely have trouble sleeping these days, but I used to and started doing some yoga before bed to get relaxed--it really helped me.

 

[Creakyknees]

As usual, I raced 2 races last night, the local Tuesday A and B crits. Because of that, Tuesday is frequently the hardest day in my week and it certainly was last night. I finished the A race completely on fumes.

Got home, shower, eat, ready for bed by 9:30, and sure enough, I must've woke up 8 times last night. Hot and sweaty, tossing and turning. No biggie, just roll over and go back to sleep.

 

[PhysioJoe]

That is the majority of the reason I don't do weeknight training crits. Not only can I not get to sleep for a couple hours after normal, but I train in the mornings so it screws up my schedule. A 40 mi tues. training crit normally means not much intensity til fri morn.

-Physiojoe

 

[MotobecaneLeChampion]

Thanks for all the interesting responses, folks. Obviously I'm not the only one who experiences the crappy sleep after hard rides!

Ride on!

 

[petalpower]

Figures after I post in this thread earlier in the week, I have my worst nights sleep that I can remember.

Did a crit last night. Temps were in the 90's and dry. Pace was fast, and was trying to repeat my previous weeks win, and probably overdid it.

Went to sleep at 11pm, laid in bed off/on dozing off till 3am, and finally fell asleep sometime after 3am. Woke up at 6am, only to doze back off and re-awake at 8am.

Hopefully tonight is better, but we've got another hard group ride, so we'll see....

 

[Dopamine]

I am pretty sure this is a rather common phenomenon, at least it's something that I'm well acquainted with. As I get older and/or fitter the connection between sleep and recovery becomes more and more apparent. This is one of the reasons why I hardly drink alchohol anymore, because I find that it interferes with my sleep quality and sets back my recovery. As other posters have stated, it is usually the case that quality of sleep deteriorates after very hard/long workouts and/or when the body is dealing with a large accumulated fatigue load. In my case I've found that it's best to not dig "deep holes" of fatigue and that includes excessively long and/or hard single-day workouts as well as overall load - doing too much will set you back in the long run because it requires a lot of recovery time.

 

[Argentius]

Never.

Am I the only one?

I don't have problems sleeping to begin with, of course, but after a ride -- especially a hard one like a race -- sayonara, good night, done.

I couldn't stay awake if I tried.

 

[CHT]

Am I the only one?

I don't have problems sleeping to begin with, of course, but after a ride -- especially a hard one like a race -- sayonara, good night, done.

I couldn't stay awake if I tried.

Nope...me too. The only time I ever have trouble sleeping is the night before a race if I think too much about the race, effort, course, etc. Otherwise, when my head hits the pillow I am out for the night. Literally within a few minutes. I do get the night sweats, etc., after hard efforts, but only notice when I wake up in the a.m.

 

[SlowMo]

Nope...me too. The only time I ever have trouble sleeping is the night before a race if I think too much about the race, effort, course, etc. Otherwise, when my head hits the pillow I am out for the night. Literally within a few minutes. I do get the night sweats, etc., after hard efforts, but only notice when I wake up in the a.m.

Ditto.....excluding the night sweats.

 

[WaynefromOrlando]

I have had similar problems with night sweats and insomnia after hard workouts, but I have found that lowering the temperature via our A/C and a ceiling fan helps me sleep so well that I haven't had the problem in a while until last night. I forgot to lower the A/C temp from the normal 77 to 73 and left the fan off. I was up at midnight with the sweats, tossing and turning when my body was screaming for sleep.

I got up and lowered the temp and turned on the fan, and within a few minutes I was asleep and didn't wake up again until the alarm went off.

I do get restless before a race or new training challenge like my first 1K lake swim or ocean swim. Not much that can be done about that in my opinion, its like a kid the night before going to Disneyland for the first time. I still remember how that night went about 40 years ago; didn't sleep a wink that night!

 

[waterobert]

I always sleep like a baby after long hard ride. I do agree with lowering room temp as a way to fight with insomnia.