The past month I have been getting pretty good sleep – between six and seven hours. Yay! But in this past month I have been waking up feeling exceptionally sluggish, which is not like me at all. I usually bounce out of bed. The past week was the worst, as it would take me four or more hours to “wake up” even though I was up at the usual time doing the usual things. I didn’t work out, as I thought that my body must be this tired for a reason and I should rest.
Fortunately, I finally thought to email a brilliant friend. He said that he didn’t have enough to go on to offer any suggestions, but he did ask if I was suddenly waking from REM sleep. I said that I didn’t know for sure about the REM part, but that I was suddenly waking every morning. Off to research I went.
I came across the term Sleep Inertia and it fits me to a tee. Basically, sluggishness from one minute to four hours occurs if a person suddenly wakes at a point other than the end of their sleep cycle, and the sleep cycle point at which they awaken determines how much sleep inertia they experience. People with more serious sleep deficits (that would be me) experience longer periods of sleep inertia. Here is a more conversational discussion of sleep inertia: Sleep Inertia 12 Facts.
Now here is the really cool part. Since emailing with my friend I no longer awaken suddenly, and my sleep inertia is gone! Even though I hadn’t worked out in a week because of the exceptional sluggishness, and my workouts this past month have been mediocre at best, my push-up and pull-up numbers are back where they should be.
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