For the past two months, I’ve been noticing a trend where I have such a hard time falling asleep on the days I lift, which is 3-4 days per week. It doesn’t matter if I lift in the morning or in the evening, but it takes me at least 2 hours to finally fall asleep. I still manage to get 7-7.5 hours, but I function a lot better getting close to 9, as would anyone I’m sure. I just don’t understand why - after a day of working out and pushing myself - I can’t fall asleep whereas on days I’m not working out, I can get those 9 hours and fall asleep quicker. I have the same bedtime routine, I have good sleep hygiene, and I take magnesium glycinate before bed every night.
Do you make use of some manner of pre-workout supplement?
Do you have a pre/post workout nutrition protocol? If so: what is it?
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Is your recent training way harder, or way more volume than you were doing a couple months ago?
Are you on an intense, restrictive (crazy?) diet now, that you weren’t on a couple months ago?
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Ah yes, I should have noted that. No, I do not use any form of pre-workout. Just cottage cheese and a clif bar about 10 minutes before my lift. During the work week, I’ll eat this around 4:30 when I get off of work. Then I’ll go lift and get back home around 6:30pm. At that time I’ll eat a typical dinner which includes protein, carbs, fats, and vegetables, each of which have roughly the same quantity every day.
At ~8:30pm I have a protein shake which is basically just a scoop of protein and a cup of milk. I go to bed (as in I have all the lights off, am actively trying to fall asleep) at 9:00ish. I know people say not to eat at the time close to when you go to bed, but I’ve found that if I don’t eat something within 30 minutes before going to bed, I’ll wake up around 2-3am feeling hungry. Unfortunately, I have a fast metabolism. I eat a good amount of protein/carbs/fats throughout the day, so I’m not sure why I would wake up hungry. Anyways, I have that protein shake every night. And then i go to bed about 30 minutes later. On the days I don’t work out, I can fall asleep within 40 minutes. On the days I do work out, again, completely different story.
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I also eat breakfast in the morning and open my blinds/try to get some sort of daylight in my eyes right when I wake up to regulate my circadian rhythm. I’ll note that I also wake up at the same time on weekdays (6:30am). On weekends that’s closer to 7:45am.
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I actually used to do a 6-day PPL split - I stopped that about 4 months ago and started lifting 3-4 days instead. So if anything, I’ve dialed back. I do train very hard each session with high intensity, but I always workout to stimulate and not annihilate. I keep my volume manageable to where I can still progress in my lifts, which I have continued to do.
And my diet has not changed at all. I’ve never been on an intense or restrictive diet; I’m just eating slightly above maintenance (200-300 calorie surplus).
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Are you using a whey protein for this protein shake?
Yup!
So here’s my bit of nutritional crackpottery.
One of the biggest selling features of whey is the fact that it’s rapidly digesting. The whole “drink a whey shake immediately after lifting” meme is premised around the idea that whey will get to your muscles as fast as possible AND it won’t sit in your gut SO THAT you’ll be hungry enough for another meal in an hour or so, which is great for gains.
This is NOT great for avoiding waking up from hunger. It’s going to have the opposite effect: right , you’ll spike your insulin with the rapid protein bump, blood sugar will rise, and then it will fall again a few hours later, signaling to your body “hey, we’re hungry”
If you were mixing this with whole milk, that could help slow down the digestion, but instead, I’d consider using a blended protein powder that has casein protein in it (like maybe Metabolic Drive…) or use this as the opportunity to eat that cottage cheese you had earlier. Cottage cheese and greek yogurt would be good, slow absorbing protein sources. Pairing them with a fat would also help slow the digestion rate.
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Metabolic Drive is a much better option, but for the last protein meal before bedtime I believe 100% Micellar Casein is the best choice.
I take this post as an opportunity to suggest that Biotest offer a protein supplement that is singularly Micellar Casein and one that is singularly whey. Allow me the opportunity to customize my ratio of whey to micellar casein.
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Ohh wait that actually makes so much sense. So technically speaking, whey would be a better choice for a post-workout shake WHEN it’s not close to bedtime, and when you might have other meals and/or snacks to eat later on. Whereas casein like you said slows the digestion and is thus good for not waking up hungry.
My question, though is: since casein slows the digestion, doesn’t that mean the protein is not absorbed into the muscles as quickly? Would this potentially delay muscle recovery COMPARED to whey? I would think that overall daily protein intake trumps this slight concern but just wanted to ask.
Ooh, thank you - I will look into that!
Would this potentially delay muscle recovery COMPARED to whey?
No. You recover during sleep. Having a slow digestion protein during a long period of not eating and recovering is a feature: not a bug.
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I see, thank you!!
Are you psyching up/summoning the demons during these workouts? That will definitely keep you wired and make it harder to fall asleep. If so, save that stuff for competition day.
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Do you have the shake on non training days when you are sleeping better?
Check the sugar content in your powder and switch to almond milk. Real milk has a fair amount of sugar.
You may just be taxing your cns too much when you train.
I know if I go hard I don’t sleep as good.
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I mean, I do try to make every single rep and set count. But I always stick to straight sets, never drop sets or other intensifiers. I do 4-5 exercises per workout, 3 sets for isolation stuff like leg extension and lateral raises, 4 sets for compound lifts where i go heavier with lowER reps (bench, squat, leg press, rdls, OHP, bb rows, hip thrusts, etc). I save going to failure for the last set unless it’s a compound lift, otherwise training 1-2 RIR for earlier sets
Yup, I also have the shake on non-training days. As far as I know, my powder has 2g of sugar. I use 2% milk, it has 12g sugar. So 14g total. BUT the other night I went out to get ice cream with friends, which definitely had more than 14g sugar. And that was a non-training day, and I slept like a baby.
Maybe my nervous system is taking longer to shut down, like you said. But if my CNS was taxed, I’d also expect my lifting progress to either plateau or go down. And it hasn’t - it hasn’t skyrocketed by any means, but it’s a slowwwww and steady progression.
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This is a good step. Why not add greater focus on adding electrolytes immediately after training right up to bedtime?
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BUT the other night I went out to get ice cream with friends, which definitely had more than 14g sugar. And that was a non-training day, and I slept like a baby.
It also has a significant amount of fat, which is going to blunt the sugar response and slow down digestion.
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