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How to manage your sleep on Paris Brest Paris
Paris-Brest-Paris is the type of sports event where managing sleep makes sense. While some of the top performers find motivation in their exploits to go without sleep for two consecutive nights, it is quite different for cyclists who complete Paris-Brest-Paris in over 50 hours. Sleep is part of the balance, and lacking it can lead not only to fatigue but also to hallucinations. However, it is not necessary to sleep for the full quota of hours. Between sleep deprivation and maximum sleep, the cyclist can find their sleep, provided they listen to their body in the weeks leading up to their long-distance event.
Knowing one's sleep cycle.
A cyclist must listen to his body, his sensations, his lifestyle. The sleep cycle, if the cyclist is not too much of a party goer, is a fixed data that the cyclist must know in order to sleep peacefully on long-distance rides. How many cycles do you sleep, one, two like Napoleon Bonaparte, three, six? On average, a sleep cycle lasts an hour and a half. Take the test, go to bed at 11 p.m. and wake up before 6:30 a.m., you have 5 cycles of 1.5 hours. Thus, it is easier for you to wake up between two cycles (5:00, 3:30, 2:00), rather than in the middle of a cycle, in the midst of deep sleep (4:30, 3:00, 1:00). Let's play with this for Paris-Brest-Paris. Go to bed at any time, but sleep one complete cycle, or two complete cycles, i.e. 1.5 or 3.0 hours. With the time it takes to fall asleep, let's count 2.0 hours of rest or 3.5 hours and the trick is done. Thus, sleeping a finite number of sleep cycles allows you to respect your rhythm and not wake up in the middle of a deep sleep phase because your itinerary planned for a "wake-up at 4:00 am". So much for the quantity of sleep. Yes, but what about when to sleep?
When to sleep during Paris-Brest-Paris?
Perhaps you didn't notice it, or you weren't able to, or you asked yourself questions, or maybe your entourage did: after your 600 km ride, you woke up at 7:00 a.m., as usual! You were probably more tired later in the day, but at 7:00 a.m., you were up and about, in great shape... like every day.
It might not have been 7:00 a.m. exactly, but it was probably your usual wake-up time, every day, for years. It's your internal clock expressing itself, the daylight coming into the house, and other factors that naturally wake you up.
Here's a good resource to use effectively for Paris-Brest-Paris.
That's what I did in 2011 during my first participation in Paris-Brest-Paris. I went to bed a 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. after arriving at a checkpoint (which marks the end of something in the brain). I took a 2-hour sleep break for a single cycle and woke up at 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. with the rising sun. As usual, the brain adjusted to the light of the new day, thinking it had spent a whole night, like usual! But no, it had only completed one sleep cycle and was able to cover 50% of its sleep needs in that first cycle. Yes, 50% of sleep needs are met with the first sleep cycle. Homo erectus, the hunter-gatherer, brings a precious treasure to "Cyclo Paris Brestus". As the day is new, what happened three hours ago is in the past, it was yesterday.
When our cyclist, who woke up at 7:00 a.m., talks about his night with his colleague who also slept for 2 hours but woke up in the middle of a cycle and at 1 a.m.:
"So how was your night? Did you sleep well?"
"Don't even mention it, I woke up at 1 a.m.! I was wondering where I was when the alarm went off! And you?"
"Me? I just finished my night, I feel good. I didn't sleep much, but I slept well."
Follow Oliv's method to manage your sleep with his little rules:
- one or two sleep cycles
- at the end of the night to wake up at dawn, as usual
- arrive at a checkpoint to mark the end of a stage and then start something with a new beginning.
Your body, already strained by physical exertion, will be less disturbed if you keep it in its usual rhythm (as usual). It performs well at those times.
In 2011, I also did the second night in the same way, even faster to get back on the road, the result: only 2 times 2 hours of sleep and a smile on my face at the finish.
And with jet lag, what should you do?
Translation: Our Quebecois friends have this issue, in addition to getting little sleep, they have to juggle with the time difference. There is a 6-hour time difference between Montreal and Paris. For a departure at 6:00 PM, it will only be noon in the cyclist's internal clock coming from Quebec. And when some cyclists take a break a midnight, the Francophone cyclists from Canada prefer to keep riding. For those who depart on Monday morning at 5:00 AM, it will actually be 11:00 PM for them. The dilemma is how to sleep?
Fortunately for us, our internal clock can be reset, and quite quickly at that. When I arrived on Saturday morning at Orly South from Montreal, I was faced with this problematic departure on Monday morning at 5:00 AM with this superb time difference to manage. It was then 9:00 AM, which is 3:00 AM in Canada. But the sun was shining. I spent my Saturday outdoors. In the evening, I went to bed late, a 9:00 PM local time. I got up as usual at 7:00 AM, and quickly adjusted to the local time for meals and the rest of the day by spending maximum time outside in the sun. Finally, my body had adapted well to the new time: Sunday night went well, as did waking up on Monday morning at a 3:30 AM.
Is the human body as beautiful a machine as a bike? Well, it depends on the bike, doesn't it? On some bikes, there isn't even a clock!
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