Primally Sleeping...not just for the holidays

Today was the first time ever that our 7am class has been larger than our 6am class.  You are all on vacation!

Vacations are nice because we get extra sleep.  Or, more likely we get the sleep that we should be getting all the time.  I think most of us have a vague sense of how important sleep is for us, but how do you feel about the idea that sleep is more important than any other aspect of caring for ourselves.  Last month I had the opportunity to hear James Fitzgerald, winner of the first CrossFit Games and owner of Optimal Performance Training, speak.  He mentioned that for a beginning (or deconditioned person) CrossFitter one of the signs he looks for to identify that the person is recovering well is that they wake up in the morning wanting to come in and train.  He describes that if they have to drag themselves out of bed and force themselves to come in and workout they are not recovered.  James talked about how a man should wake up in the morning refreshed enough to want to have sex with their wife.  Training hard is not more important than sleeping.  In fact if you aren’t well rested training hard will be detrimental.  It is important to sort out what keeps you from being well rested.  As with all things we can look to Paleo Person to give us some clues.

Sleep cycles are connected to our stress hormones.  Other hormones that influence sleep, like melatonin, are related to the presence of light and darkness.  One of the most important books you can read to understand how the impact of modern life is affecting your health is called Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky.  This book changed my thinking about life and I was super pleased to see it on James Fitzgerald’s “Must Read Book List” for CrossFit Affiliate owners.  From Sapolsky’s book:

“We have the potential for some real problems here, insofar as lack of sleep or poor-quality sleep activates the stress-response, and an activated stress response makes for less sleep or lower-quality sleep.  Each feeds on the other” p. 237

Here are the important lessons Paleo Person can give us about sleeping:

1.  Go to sleep when it gets dark.  Wake up when it gets light.  This is how those hormones that control sleep are meant to work.

2.  Make your sleeping environment as dark as possible.  No LED lights, no street lights shining in.  Women’s reproductive cycles (as well as other animals) are controlled by lengths of light and dark.  Ovulation occurs during the full moon.  This concept is well known by chicken breeders who use light to control fertility of their chickens.

3.  If you don’t sleep well or work excessively hard, take a nap or extra rest.  The pro-napping vs. anti-napping debates are huge.  I like what Mark Sisson, author of The Primal Blueprint says on the subject: Primal man likely had disrupted sleep because they slept in family groups with babies, nursing mothers, kids etc… They also had to maintain vigilance at night for safety reasons.  Hunter-gatherers are known for their naps.  Good enough for me.

The bottom line is that if you aren’t recovering well from workouts or are looking for an important way of caring for health, remember to sleep!  And, on that note, Congratulations to Josh on his little baby and we look forward to seeing all your family here more in the future.  May you all sleep well!