Testing the Uberman Sleep Schedule

[Edward Smith]

A recent sleep study found that sleeping too much was also unhealthy, not not at the same level as sleeping too little.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20621406

Triangle,

Do you have the full text? As to me that comes off as very unconvincing. It could well be a case of people who sleep longer (7>8) have other risk factors, poor diet, more stress, smokers, poor social networks, etc.

Dan John performed a test on himself, where he committed to sleeping 12 (I believe they were aggregate) hours of sleep a day. He reported losing weight, purely from this change (he maintained his current regime, diet and exercise).

Ed

[Jason Stein]

Hey Triangle,

As I've no doubt you're aware, the positive association reported in the statistical survey doesn't indicate whether more/less 8 hours of sleep actually causes the health issues.

Just that where there's one (more/less than 8 hours of sleep), there is a statistically significant probability of the other (hypertension, diabetes, etc) occurring.

What would be more interesting I think to this audience would be a survey of the sleep habits of Olympic athletes.

Not that we're potential Olympic hopefuls, just that there are no studies like this on groups that do 16-20+ hours of gymnastics training per week (I include in this group other high-output lifestyle-related physical cultures, i.e. climbers, breakers, capoeiristas, circus performers, traceurs, skaters, BMXers, surfers, snowboarders).

I've no doubt the Soviets or East Germans kept ridiculous data on performance and sleep.

On a separate but related thought, I used to ride road-bikes with a guy who rode in the peloton in the late 80s/early 90s. He said during the first year of his jump from the pros in the U.S. to the European circuit, he was sleeping 14-16 hours a day, sometimes more when he didn't have to race.

It was definitely "dark times." He said when he wasn't on a bike, he had sandbags for legs.

He made it through the first year, adapted to the demand, and his sleep went back to 8-10 hours a night.

best,

jason

[Coach Sommer]

What would be more interesting I think to this audience would be a survey of the sleep habits of Olympic athletes.

There may be no definitive studies, however in my experience there is plenty of anecdotal evidence. At the US Olympic Training Center during National Team training camps, we normally train twice a day. During our mid-day break between training sessions the Russian, Chinese and Cuban coaches would all go to lay down and rest for 1-2 hours; a practice that became habitual with them during their competitive days.

Raj Bhavsar in his preparation for the '08 Olympics required himself to get at least eight hours of sleep per night, in addition to a midday nap.

As a younger athlete, Paul Hamm ('03 World Champion and '04 Olympic Champion) used to get teased by his teammates at National Team training camps for going to bed each night at 9:30pm.

The pattern is clear; make sure that you get plenty of unbroken rest at night and, if you are training hard, a midday nap may also be of great benefit.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Neal Winkler]

A recent sleep study found that sleeping too much was also unhealthy, not not at the same level as sleeping too little.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20621406

Triangle,

Do you have the full text? As to me that comes off as very unconvincing. It could well be a case of people who sleep longer (7>8) have other risk factors, poor diet, more stress, smokers, poor social networks, etc.

Dan John performed a test on himself, where he committed to sleeping 12 (I believe they were aggregate) hours of sleep a day. He reported losing weight, purely from this change (he maintained his current regime, diet and exercise).

Ed

I haven't read the whole study, but I could probably get it. I really don't plan on reading the whole thing, anyway. The abstract specifically states that it attempted to control for various factors.

[Neal Winkler]

Hey Triangle,

As I've no doubt you're aware, the positive association reported in the statistical survey doesn't indicate whether more/less 8 hours of sleep actually causes the health issues.

Just that where there's one (more/less than 8 hours of sleep), there is a statistically significant probability of the other (hypertension, diabetes, etc) occurring.

What would be more interesting I think to this audience would be a survey of the sleep habits of Olympic athletes.

Not that we're potential Olympic hopefuls, just that there are no studies like this on groups that do 16-20+ hours of gymnastics training per week (I include in this group other high-output lifestyle-related physical cultures, i.e. climbers, breakers, capoeiristas, circus performers, traceurs, skaters, BMXers, surfers, snowboarders).

I've no doubt the Soviets or East Germans kept ridiculous data on performance and sleep.

On a separate but related thought, I used to ride road-bikes with a guy who rode in the peloton in the late 80s/early 90s. He said during the first year of his jump from the pros in the U.S. to the European circuit, he was sleeping 14-16 hours a day, sometimes more when he didn't have to race.

It was definitely "dark times." He said when he wasn't on a bike, he had sandbags for legs.

He made it through the first year, adapted to the demand, and his sleep went back to 8-10 hours a night.

best,

jason

Of course, correlation does not equal causation.

This study, to my knowledge, did not look at elite athletes. Ergo, we cannot assume that the sleeping habits of such individuals are optimal for the general population.