Sleep or cardio?

B

bookmonkey

0
Haha, I thought about Eddie Izzard's "cake or death?" when naming this post just now :)

Anyway, here's my issue: I am a morning work-out girl, and I love it. However, there *are* some mornings when I've only gotten 5ish hours of sleep, go to the gym anyway, and do feel energized for at least a little while. But would it be more beneficial to my metabolism on those days to spend the hour and 1/2 I use getting ready for the gym, working out, coming home...sleeping instead? I've heard that insufficient sleep can lower your metabolism, and overall, even after I work out and feel a little buzzed afterwards, I always end up feeling sluggish and yucky the rest of the day.

One solution to this problem is sleeping in, then working out at night. But I much, much prefer morning work-outs - it's not so crowded, and I get it out of the way early. I'm a teacher, so I devote much of my evenings to class prep.

Thoughts? Thanks!
 
Try going to bed when you're sleepy. You may want to look at time management techniques if you find it problematic. Physiologically, it's best for your body to wake up at the same time every day. This includes weekends. :p So if you have a fixed wake-up time of 5am then regardless of when you go to bed you wake up then. Over time you will fall into a rhythm and find yourself going to bed naturally around 9-11pm (or earlier possibly), depending on how much sleep you need.

If your trouble is realizing when you're sleepy, try reading, taking a bath, or performing any sort of relaxing activity. If you need sleep, you will find yourself dozing off. I tend to read in bed..which some say you shouldn't do, but it's a great way for me to give my body the opportunity to tell me when I'm sleepy..when I start having difficulty concentrating on what I'm reading, I'm done.

If you don't fall asleep within 15 minutes of trying to (barring any abnormalities), then you're not sleepy enough. You may as well stay up until you feel like you can fall asleep easily. Doing so may leave you sleep deprived initially..but over time it stabilizes your sleeping pattern, putting it as close to your circadian rhythm as possible.
 
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I pretty much agree on this one. I recently started morning cardio meaning I get up at 6:45am. To begin with, I would go to bed at 10:30pm and just lie awake for ages but, now find myself sleepy and ready for sleep at around 10:30 - 11pm rather than midnight and beyond like before.
 
Sometimes I don't get as much sleep as I'd like, and I still push myself into the gym and am fine. Other times, you just have to listen to your body, and if it's tired, let it rest. If the days of poor sleep start getting more regular, you have to change something.
 
OP what are your goals.

also the thing you would have to consider that even if your metabolism slows down slightly due to the fact that you haven't gotten enough sleep, chances are that by doing the workout instead you probably have least counteracted this subtle difference in your daily calorific needs
 
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