Climbing and sleeping

Are there any of you who, like me, have trouble sleeping the night before a big climb? I can pretty much guarentee that before any big climb, especially those that I've never done before, that I am not going to get a wink of sleep. How do you deal with the anxiety?

Sounds like you have a medical condition. Try medical marijuana!

Son, you need to start drinking and drinking heavily to catch up to your climbing peers.

...And ETOH is cheaper than decent bud anyway.

Spencer...Yes I do. I have trouble sleeping the night before any big event be it a climb or a bike race or whatever. It gets better for me with time such as less important bike races don't mess with me much any more but big events that I care about do make it hard to get good rest.

The upside is that it doesn't matter. One poor nights sleep does not negatively effect performance. Get good rest the week leading up to it and you'll be fine.

Ya all of the time before a big climb, kayak run, bike ride, first day at a new job you name it.

While I am a big fan of Medical Grade Weed not sure that's the answer. Case in point October 1991 I am bivouacked at the base of Half Dome with two buddies. We had some cheep weed we had been smoking earlier in the day, my buds are sleeping like babes one is only up there for the hike the other is my second, we will be swapping leads but I am the most experienced so if push comes to shove I will have to do the hard pitches. Another groups shows up sometime after dark and they share some kind bud I didn't get much sleep that night.

Hey Chris

You got your post in while I was writing mine similar response I bet you had a poor nights sleep on a certain Thursday night in April of 09.

Not to highjack Spencers post follow the link to a race that Chris and I have both done topofusion.com/azt/results.php

Finally a support group for my condition. This is a perpetual problem for me. Usually the more important the climbing day = less sleep. But I'm pretty much guaranteed a less then optimal night sleep before climbing. I just finished my hardest redpoint and the night before the send I went to bed at 8:30, tossed and turned for 5 hours before I fell asleep. I know good sleep hygiene says to get up and do something instead of tossing and turning. But I rationalized that at least I was resting my body.

I took a my wifes ambien one time, but still didn't work very well and I was so tired and climb like crap the next day (at least I didn't sleep walk/eat, that I know of). Breathing exercises and meditation have helped somewhat but I think I have to just accept my condition. It’s like Christmas Eve when I was little.

Try Benadryl.

Nyquil does it for me. Also works for a come down after pounding coffee the night before exams.

Sex!

there are herbal remedies that help!

spencerparkin wrote:Thanks all for the replies. I agree with Mr. Anderson. The amount and quality of the sleep is always inversly proportional to how important it is to wake up the next day and how big the climb is. I wish I was married.

Just being married is no guarantee there, way to good to be true.

Not able to fall asleep before climbing.... not a problem.
Falling asleep while climbing.... big problem.

I too have this problem and it is compounded by restless shoulder syndrome (same as restless legs or jimmy legs per seinfeld,just in my shoulders). I do multiple push-ups to calm my "energy buildup" and that seems to help. My theapist recommended 5HTP which is triptiphan, just like turkey but is has a problem with causing upset stomachs. Breathing definatly helps. One other thing that I have found works is visulizing "easy climbing". When I have a hard ice climb on tap, I lay at night visulizing and "re-living" a WI3 climb. Also, knowing that I am not going to get much sleep, I will stay up later than usual. If I go to bed too early I will definatley be tossing and turning. Yes sex helps but only because it is physical and it distracts you. These are the things I have found that help.

This is an awesome thread, Nice to see Reality in the thread.

PS Tried the alcohol thing for many years and found that I needed it all the time to go to sleep and a "tolerance" was built. At 34 I was an alcoholic that had to drink 6+ just to sleep. I wouldn't suggest that route.

EDIT: You don't have to worry about sleep if you start at midnight and climb all night. I try to schedule my alpine acents accordingly

Tim McCabe wrote: Just being married is no guarantee there, way to good to be true.

Its sometimes worse. I'll go to bed early, flip flop and just as I start to fall asleep (or when I think I'm just falling asleep, it's hard to tell sometimes). Here comes my wife, getting into bed messing up my covers and wanting to cuddle! There have been many an argument over this subject. Sex doesn't always work either (for sleep I mean).

Same thing happens to me.. It happened before the night before Nose in a day, half dome, salathe. I haven't really found anything that works that great. Trying to slow yourself the hour before you go to sleep works for me.. drinking tea, reading, campfire etc..

Sucks...I might get 1/2-1 if I'm lucky...toss and turn all night long. Normal climbing days not too much, but if it's a ambitious day and I'm nervous no sleep for this guy!

Nice to know I'm not the only one!!

You're definitely not the only one.

At least for me it has applied to longer time frames as well. The AZ race that Tim posted about took me 67 hours and I slept once in the middle. The final 27 hours were a continuous push plus I still had to ride to town after finishing in the middle of nowhere, lol.

You "need" less sleep than you think if you *regularly are getting enough quality sleep*. However I'm not really recommending sleep deprivation and it becomes handy to know how to deal with drowsiness in serious situations when you push it to an extreme.

In the case of a big alpine day I've never had it be a problem but you can always take a 15 minute nap in an appropriate location if needed.

spencerparkin wrote:Are there any of you who, like me, have trouble sleeping the night before a big climb?

Yeah, I have that issue. However, it's usually it's because I don't finish getting gear and the pack together for an alpine climb until 1 am or so, and then have to be up at 2:30 am or something equally ridiculous. Anyone else suffer from this condition? I think they call it 'procrastination'.