In the last couple of months, I noticed I have been getting frequent comments 🙋♂️and questions ❓ about how do I get enough sleep 🛌🏻, considering the amount of 🏃🏻running I do daily, and if I sleep at all😬. Believe me, I do sleep and I love sleeping.
I have to be upfront though. Several years ago, I hated sleeping because I thought sleeping was just another excuse to waste my precious ⌛time. I like productivity stuff 😎and I viewed sleep as an unproductive thing📉. In my mind, I thought how can I afford wasting my time on sleeping😴. My thought process was that, eventually, we all gonna die ⚰️, so why spent time on sleeping so many hours 😕.
All things change in this world so did my view↩️. The more I started to get into sports🏋🏻, healthy lifestyle, and specifically into 🏃🏻♂️running, the more I realized how my perspective on sleep was so wrong ⛔. Maybe because before getting into fitness and running, I lived sedentary lifestyle🥱, spending hours upon hours in front of the 💻computer and little did I know about the benefits of good sleep.
Let me be clear right here❗ Sleep does not equal resting. While good quality of sleep gives you good sense of resting, it does not always equates to it. Have you had this feeling of sleeping for 12 hours🕰️, only to find out that you don’t feel rested🥱. That’s because many people count the number of hours they sleep and they think “If I sleep x-amount of hours, then I feel rested and fresh”. The reality is that your body goes through lots of changes and while ✅8 hours might be enough one day, the other day it might ❌not.
That’s why I stopped counting number of hours I sleep and focus on the quality of my 🛌🏻sleep and rest. The more I ran the more I saw the need for good sleep|rest. It has been at least 2 years now since I started to 📖learn a lot how my body works and how my sleeping patterns affect my mood 😁throughout the day. I learned that if I sleep early say around 8PM-9PM, I tend to get good amount of rest and feel fresh and restored the next day👍🏻. If I go to bed after 10 PM, then even longer sleep doesn’t get me the freshness of my legs for my early runs😩.
Here is my takeaway from many days and nights that I experimented and that works for me. The earlier I go to bed, the less time I need to feel ⚡rested and get good quality of sleep. If I had to sleep, let’s say, for 7 (seven) hours and had to choose to sleep from 9PM until 4AM or from 11PM until 6AM - I would choose the first one. Because even the amount of hours are equal in both situations, my body tends to feel well rested if I go to bed earlier. That’s why I have no problem waking up early in the morning at 3AM-4AM, to hit the 🛣️road for running from 5AM until 7AM. I love 3AM-4AM time because I can spend this time for my well-being 🧘🏻and also get physical benefit from running and experience sunrise🌅. Greeting the ☀️sun while I run is another whole 🪄magic on its own. My older son, Neki, also knows that if it’s passed 8PM it’s about time to get to sleep.
That’s why some days I sleep more, other days I sleep less. The question I ask myself first after I get up is “Do I feel rested?” If the answer is “yes” then that’s good. If the answer is “no” then I try to find time for more sleep. If more sleep is not helping, then I start examining my day, whether I am stressed 😓at work or something is bothering me. Today, I view sleep as foundation for my recovery and I love it😍. I love it because I don’t view it as a sleep but as a way to give my body rest from the 💪🏻pressure and 🏋🏻load I put it through during the day.
Of course, everyone is different and what works for me might not work for you. The only way to figure out what works for you is through trial and error and with every change you incorporate in your routine 📝, notice how it effects you as a person throughout the day.
Do you also love sleeping? How many hours do you sleep? Do you feel rested having slept X-amount of hours? Do you track your sleeping hours? I would love to hear your experience. Share in the Telegram’s comments.
What began as nothing more than a spark of a thought has now taken shape before us, alive and undeniable. We didn’t just imagine it, we lived it, we felt it, and we proved that a simple idea can become something powerful when we dare to believe in it. This journey reminds me that every dream starts quietly, almost invisibly, yet with courage, effort, and heart, it grows into something that touches our lives and inspires us to keep reaching for more.
At the top of the Double Pass (northern), my brother Firuz asked me about our estimated plan of when we will be reaching the finish. Based on the information we had, I said: “Best plan is we reach by 7 PM, given or taken plus/minus 1 hour.” Little I knew how things could go wrong so fast.
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