Sleep Deprivation

A lot of you have asked about sleep deprivation; how to deal with it, how to train for it, what is it like. There are no hacks, that is the emerging theme in all these topics related to ultra-endurance cycle racing. No hacks, just hard work. We are all different, so what works for me will possibly not work for you. Take this story and think about how to apply this to yourself and where your boundaries are.

Let me get this out in front, I don’t advocate sleep deprivation; it’s not nice. There might be long term health effects. That said, we are all adults and make our own choices; I make mine. ‘Judge not lest ye be judged.’ Ultra-racing is fun as it is, the whole point is to find the limits of human endurance, but if you just don’t like sleep deprivation, there are shorter races and events that may be better suited to you.

What it’s like

Someone wrote to me last week telling me about an experience they had with sleep deprivation and described how tired they were. They asked me what to do about it. Well, let me tell you, I am beyond tired when sleep deprived; the fatigue is so strong, it overcomes me, it becomes all powerful.

We all have a ‘circadian rhythm’ that runs in the background of our brains. It’s also called the sleep / wake cycle. My fatigue follows this rhythm; once the sun sets and it goes dark the wave begins, it pulls me under, deeper and deeper as the night wears on. The last couple of hours to sunrise are the worst - the deep of the night, when we should all be fast asleep, it is in these hours that I will either have to fight back against the wave, or sleep. Perhaps just 20 minutes and it’s enough to slow the surge. Once the sun streaks break the horizon, the tide of fatigue recedes. Once the sun is up and its warmth enters my bones, I can be eight days deep into a race but will feel alive and awake. The sun is incredibly powerful, perhaps the best tool against the wave for me. Its warmth changes me, which I can’t understand or explain.

Training

In my opinion, you cannot train for sleep deprivation. I won’t mince my words here, anyone that thinks getting up super early or riding through the night in order to train for sleep deprivation is fooling themselves. Now, I will seem to contradict myself! When racing, the experience of keeping going, through the waves of fatigue, is vital.  The more experience you have, the more you learn and the better you can be. The best way to find out is by racing, not training, as it won’t be real. This can be pretty horrible as you need to go beyond your limits to find that line and learn to manage it. Also, what you’re doing is training while really tired, which is not great.

I went to the Italy Divide in 2019 with this approach in mind. I was there for fun. If it all went wrong, it didn’t matter. In 2018 I’d been at my fourth Transcontinental, a race where I couldn’t afford to experiment and take risks because every year, I raced to win. Now, on a gravel bike for Italy Divide, I threw caution to the wind. Racing flat out, I slept 2 hours in 4 days (not counting the enforced 4 hours I enjoyed just before the finish to wait out an unexpected snow storm). The findings from this self-experiment was both interesting and private. I can tell you though, if you want to find out about sleep deprivation, you are going to have to just do it. It will be unpleasant, but you will certainly find your limits!

I’ve often lived at my limit during races and I’ve found a shift over time, either due to adaption of my body or mind, both of which get stronger every year. What I can tolerate now, I couldn’t six years ago when I was just starting out. I’ve also learnt a fairly simple lesson, the amount of sleep (per day) that I need to race over 9 days, is over 3 hours.

By trying new things, I find tricks that help. Some people sing, some shout, some talk to themselves. There are scientifically proved approaches, like splashing water around your eyes and nose, caffeine, light in your eyes and more. However, what works for one won’t work for another. Also, what works on one occasion might not work on another.

The way we sleep in ultra-endurance cycle races is unlike other events. We can sleep whenever we want, for however long. This means most research on sleep deprivation isn’t valid. For example, in sailing they can only sleep in short windows of time, generally, due to weather opportunities or requirements to wake and check equipment. They also have periods of calm when longer sleeps can be had, however on the whole they use power naps of just 20 minutes or less. The idea is to wake up before deep sleep starts. It can work but it’s not the best. There is no research about the minimum sleep required to function optimally during an ultra-endurance cycle race.

In summary; get experience, learn how your body works and find your limits.

Managing

During the race, dealing with sleep deprivation successfully is all about careful management.. Easier said than done. When you’re fatigued, both your cognitive function and rational decision making is impaired. It has taken me a few years to reprogram this. Most situations I find myself facing have pre-defined decisions that I’ve identified and learnt.

An anecdote: on the final night of Atlas Mountain Race 2020, I was due to finish in the early morning. The time was 3am and I was tired, struggling to keep my eyes open, overcome with waves of fatigue. I looked up the situation in my virtual index. My action was to pull over immediately, stuff my face with food, take 100mg caffeine, lay down (helmet, shoes still on) and set my alarm for 22 minutes. It didn’t matter if I slept or not (in fact I would drift in and out of a hypnotic trance) but I would rest, reenergise and repower. I was awake before my alarm, I jumped over my top tube and pedalled off as a different person, the overwhelming waves of fatigue were now just ripples, lapping at my feet. I rode several hours to the finish. Don’t get me wrong, I was still tired but not incapacitated.

Caffeine is scientifically proven over and over to improve cognitive function and arrest fatigue. Yes, I use it. No, I don’t abuse it. After a lot of self-experimentation, I have found a dose rate that works for me. I will keep that private, not because it’s high, but because we are all different. The Army medical studies recommend 200mg every 4 hours. I am well under this level which I find too much. That is said as someone who is a big coffee drinker!

Managing sleep deprivation is all about getting just enough sleep. Yes, you can complete short distance races on no sleep, but is it really the fastest way, maybe not. As mentioned, I like microbursts of sleep (20 minutes). I use these and little snacks to keep my sleep hunger at bay. Though for longer races, longer periods of 1.5 to 3 and up to 5 hours are required for me to keep around optimum. I do not have a schedule, I use my experience to dose out these times dependant on factors, such as: current tiredness level, distance to finish, upcoming terrain, weather, hunger, mood, time of day, pain levels. As you can see, the equation is not simple, but a holistic approach is needed. If your mood is low and it’s raining, maybe a short sleep will do you good. But if the sun is up and your mood and speed are good, even if tired, perhaps sleep not needed.

Sleep is a dependant variable of speed. The graph below shows figurative data for a 10 day race of 4,000 km. Overall fatigue is not just about sleep, so sleeping more will not continue to increase average speed. There is a point, different for all, where duration per day is maximised, which is the key metric to completing a race in the minimum time. Note, this graph is just made up, it’s not my data or real, it’s simply to serve a purpose, illustrating that no sleep is not the best way to maximise distance per day. And neither is lots of sleep!

A closing note

There are many other substances out there that would make a huge benefit to sleep deprivation, don’t even think about it. You’re just cheating yourself and everyone in the race. If you want to check if a medication is acceptable while racing, go here: https://www.globaldro.com/Home. I check everything I take against that list.