How to make the most out of 5 hours of sleep

Xanax

Magnesium Breakthrough by BiOptimizers as recommend by Ben Greenfield. Also, I think limiting caffeine consumption and establishing a nightly routine with a bed time around the same time every night.

So you’re literally working/commuting ~17 hours a day?

If that’s true, you need to re-evaluate your career situation. That’s not sustainable and the amount of daily stress will always hinder your quality of sleep.

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My job prevents me from being able to do much better than this once I add in 4 hours of weight training and 6 hours of fasted walking per week

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I doubt this is true, but if it is you need a new job, not better sleep habits


With that said, yes blue light glasses work, start wearing them 2-3 hours before bed. Magnesium and melatonin are two good sleep aids that have no side effects.

You need to establish a consistent nighttime routine to achieve maximum circadian rhythm, when your body knows its time to sleep it will slow down and naturally produce sleep hormones. You can fight these off, but then your body has a hard time making more leading to restless sleep.

Eta: also make sure your room as is dark and quiet as possible

But what about Keto?

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But what about Keto?

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It is low sugar and can control insulin spikes, but if you arent eating right before bed you shouldn't have that problem anyway.


As usual, OWA is an idiot is mainly what I'm trying to say

If I were you I'd cut back on the walking for now. An extra hour of sleep will be more beneficial than that hour of walking. Put a little more focus on the diet and it won't matter.

Also, it shouldn't take you 30 minutes to fall asleep

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12 hour days and 2.5 hours of total commute time.

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Try to change that when you can. I understand the economy and covid may impact that currently, but it’s not worth losing your life to work.

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1 hour walks in the morning plus 1.5 hours of weight training in the afternoon leaves me with 7 hours left for sleeping, showers, eating, getting ready for work, dishes, washing clothes, any work around the house, and any errands I may need to run after work such as getting gas, grocery shopping, whatever else comes up.

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There’s no point to lifting for 1.5 hours a day if you aren’t recovering. 90 minutes of weights (assuming you aren’t fricking around and keep rest times short) is bodybuilder levels of lifting. As Jim Wendler says, you have to be reasonable and considerate of your situation. As a working dad with two little kids and a working wife, there’s no way I’d have the time or energy or ability to lift for 90 minutes.

Peruse the Greyskull thread and see if you can come up with a different program. You honestly can see physique and strength gains with about 30-40 minutes of lifting just three days a week. Cut the fasted walking down to 20ish minutes most days (maybe throw in an hour walk once a week if you really enjoy it). That right there would free up 1.5 hours for sleeping.

Rest and recovery is most important. You have to rebuild those muscle tears for the workout to make a change in your body.

Thanks all. I'll cut out the walking and give magnesium supplements a shot. I'll try to cut my weight training down by a few minutes. Currently doing BBR with some leg work and finishing with 10 minutes of conditioning which puts me at about 80 minutes when I factor in stretching and ab work. Maybe ill drop one or two movements and drop the conditioning to one day per week.

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Currently doing BBR with some leg work and finishing with 10 minutes of conditioning which puts me at about 80 minutes when I factor in stretching and ab work. Maybe ill drop one or two movements and drop the conditioning to one day per week.

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If you keep a tighter pace during your workouts you can probably drop that 10 mins of conditioning, or better, tie it into your accessory work. Can also use your accessory lifts to work on your core and probably get rid of the ab work an/or limit it to once a week. For 3 weeks try keeping your workouts to 1 hour max, when you hit that hour just leave the gym. With such a tight schedule keeping your workouts to an hour will help some.