Dealing With Early Hours and Lack of Sleep

[AdamF]

So i made an admittedly stupid decision last night while trying to gain some brownie points at my new job. They needed a new truck guy starting next week and since I have prior truck unloading experience I agreed. Well come to find out, since Panera opens at 6am, I need to be at the door and ready to go by 3am. So I need to be up by 2am. This is only Monday and Thursday mornings though.

Right now working nights I wake up at about 9ish and get plenty (9+hours) of sleep. So the questions are,

1. How is this really going to affect me lifting?

2. If I get 7 hours of sleep before hand then lift right after I get home will it really be a huge deal?

3. Is there anything I can do to help overcome this? Like eating more?

Thanks for the help guys. This forum is awesome.

[BendtheBar]

Originally Posted by AdamF

1. How is this really going to affect me lifting?

2. If I get 7 hours of sleep before hand then lift right after I get home will it really be a huge deal?

3. Is there anything I can do to help overcome this? Like eating more?

Thanks for the help guys. This forum is awesome.

I've lifted on less than optimal sleep previously and it didn't cause my gains in size or strength to slow, that I could tell. I would often lift after getting home.

It really helped during these times to eat as clean and healthy as possible, because when I did stray and eat extra junk I felt like a wreck when I woke up. I wouldn't eat more. I found that over time poor sleep slowed my metabolism a bit, and maybe this was hormone related. But you might consider doing some mild cardio for health, maybe 3 times a week if your not doing it already.

Sleep can mess up your testosterone levels a bit, so I would make sure you cover all your basic health minimums with a multivitamin, fish oil and maybe a test boosting product (Prolab's Horny Goat Weed is cheap).

2 days a week of less than optimal sleep shouldn't be much of an issue. Those of us with children rarely get 3-4 days of great sleep each week. Just sleep the best you can on days off.

My last piece of advice is to schedule lifting workouts on the days you know you will feel good, if that is possible.