Many athletes experience this, but not everyone admits it: after a hard workout or race, you lie in bed, tossing and turning from side to side, and cannot fall asleep, although you are tired. You may also feel like you are radiating heat or hearing your heartbeat. And even if you end up falling asleep, you still sleep restlessly and don’t recover overnight. Why is this happening? How can fatigue even cause insomnia?
There is no single answer to this question since many factors cause post-workout insomnia. Let’s figure out which ones.
Hormones
Exercising increases your heart rate, sweating, and body temperature and excites the nervous and endocrine systems. The longer the workout or race was, the longer your body was in this excited state. Two hormones that strongly influence post-workout insomnia are norepinephrine and cortisol.
Cortisol
Cortisol is released as a response to stress; this means that it is released almost always during training. Cortisol helps the body adapt to stress, but if the stress is too high and recovery is not enough, chronically elevated cortisol levels can cause insomnia.
Throughout the day, cortisol levels in the body fluctuate, peaking about 30 minutes after waking up and then slowly decreasing. That is, when you go to bed in the evening, cortisol in your body, as a rule, is already a little. But if the competition lasts all day (like Leadville or Ironman), then by the evening, due to stress, the level of cortisol in the body will be higher than normal, and it will be more difficult for you to fall asleep.
As for shorter workouts or races, a short workout ending late in the evening can have the same effect as a long workout earlier. What matters here is the intensity of the workout and how much time passes between training and going to bed. The good news is that if you train regularly in the evening, you will soon get used to it and fall asleep normally after training. Insomnia after training often happens if the load is stronger or later in the evening than usual.
Norepinephrine and Adrenaline
Training and competition evoke intense emotions, resulting in increased release of norepinephrine and adrenaline. Adrenaline levels drop rapidly after exercise, but norepinephrine levels can remain high for up to 48 hours after heavy exercise, according to a 2011 study. This is one possible explanation for why many athletes train in the evenings and sleep well afterward but cannot sleep after particularly hard training sessions or long competitions.
Stimulants
Dehydration and high body temperature
You are unlikely to be able to greatly change the hormonal response of your body to exercise (although still, the better your fitness and less stress level, the better). But you can influence your body’s water content and how it changes your body temperature.
Many athletes drink caffeinated drinks before or during exercise. The body quickly adapts to caffeine: after a while, you can drink coffee even in the evenings and still fall asleep peacefully. But if you’re having trouble falling asleep in the evening after a boogieman pre workout or competition, check how much caffeine you consume and at what time of day. You may find yourself consuming much more caffeine than usual during long races. If this is the case, try to consume caffeinated sports drinks exactly when you need focus and quick reactions.
During sleep, your body temperature drops slightly, and when you wake up, it rises again. Sleep better in cool rooms. If you have a high body temperature, you are more likely to have trouble sleeping. From physical exertion, the body temperature rises, and if the body is also dehydrated, it becomes more difficult to cool it.
After 4-5 hours of physical activity, your body is likely to be slightly dehydrated, and after longer competitions, this is completely inevitable. Dehydration leads to a higher heart rate even hours after a workout or competition. When all these factors stack up, athletes feel like they’re radiating heat and hearing their heartbeat while trying to sleep.
Related Article: THE BEST SPORTS NUTRITION FOR POST-WORKOUT RECOVERY
What to do?
If you cannot sleep or toss and turn all night after a workout or competition, try these tips.
– Improve your fitness
As in many other aspects, improving your fitness solves many problems at once. The fitter you are, the better your body can handle the stress of training and races.
– Reduce Stress
Remember the cartoon: “Let go and fuck it….” Seriously, the stress you bring to training from your job or an unpleasant visit to relatives only adds cortisol to the fire and increases sensitivity to stimulating hormones (for example, epinephrine). This may continue until chronically elevated levels of these hormones make you less sensitive to them.
– Eat less caffeine
Remember, caffeine doesn’t give you any extra energy. It helps to be more focused and aware; in this regard, more is not always better. In long races, caffeine won’t help you throughout the race. The best time to consume a caffeinated product is just before the part of the race when you need it the most.
– Actively cool the body after training
Many athletes know that you need to replenish the balance of water and nutrients after training. But it is also important to purposefully cool the body after exercise:
- Wiping with wet towels.
- A cool shower.
- Wiping with ice.
- Being in a cool room will help.
– Sleep in a cool room
During sleep, both skin temperature and core body temperature decrease. If you sleep in a cool room, then the process of this cooling is faster and easier. We are all different, but on average, the normal temperature for restful sleep is between 16-20 degrees Celsius.
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