A Good Night's Rest

Finding the balance between sleeping enough and running enough

Somewhere between nirvana and oblivion, you’re blasted awake by the grating buzz of your alarm clock. You quickly remember that your day is filled with meetings and the kids have appointments. If you’re going to run today it’s now or forget it. Exhausted as you feel, you know that a few quick slugs of coffee and a hard seven-miler will restore your vigor. Besides, a little grogginess is no excuse for ignoring the most important aspect of training—running?

But another voice whispers a tune you’ve heard before: Without adequate rest—of the nighttime variety, that is—you won’t run your best. Reams of anecdotal claims suggest this is true, but just how important is getting enough sleep to the competitive runner?

The Dual-Edged Sword

To an endurance athlete, lack of sleep is a dual-edged psychological sword. On one hand, if you know or believe you aren’t getting enough rest, you’ll have one more piece of mental baggage to carry around the course. On the other, sleep deprivation is known to have subtle but relentless effects on mood and motivation, both of which factor heavily into attaining top performance. "I definitely notice a lull in mental energy and excitement about a workout or race if I haven’t had enough sleep," says former Dartmouth All-America Kristin Manwaring.

From a strictly physiological standpoint, even many of the basics regarding sleep remain to be elucidated. We spend about a third of our lives in the arms of Morpheus, and scientists know that after long enough periods without sleep, we literally can’t survive. Yet no one knows exactly why we must lay our weary heads to rest once every 24 hours or so. Nonetheless, researchers have clarified a number of physical processes that can’t occur properly in the absence of adequate sleep, and many of these contribute to peak running performance.