Thursday, November 12, 2009

We can all agree that sleep deprivation is bad.  It makes life a whole lot harder to deal with, not to mention messing with appetite and metabolism.  So yeah, it’s bad.  Life will be life, and sometimes there just is no sleep to be had.  Some survival tips:

Keep your carbs and caffeine low.  Low caffeine, you say?  But… But… Well, remember all that cortisol talk from last week?  Sleep deprivation is a systemic stress, and caffeine can stimulate cortisol production.  Low carbs will help keep your sugar metabolism in check… And since cortisol triggers a release of glucose into the bloodstream it’s even more important to keep dietary carbohydrates low during times of limited sleep.

But let’s say now is not terribly busy for you.  Can you really do anything to prepare yourself for future sleeplessness?  You betcha.  You’ve got a sleep bank account, and while you can’t overfill it, you can at the very least make sure you’re not running a deficit.  Sleep deficits don’t go away, they just carry over month to month.  So why not make use of the darker days to pay down some debt?  Keep a log, see just how much extra sleep you can rack up in the next month.  Consider it a deposit against future crises.

Workout

Push press 5-5-5 reps