Sleeping; What's ok & what's not ok?

[Carissa]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new here. My name is Carissa, I'm 22yo from Adelaide and have been on Cohens for 5 weeks now. I have spent the past 5 days or so just reading a bunch of threads- This forum is fantastic, it's great to see so many other people out there doing Cohens coming together on here to share and create a plethora of differing views, opinions, knowledge & ideas regards to the journey we have commonly chosen. Great mechanism of support!!

I have a couple of questions in regards to sleep whilst on Cohens and what everyones perspectives are.

8 Hours sleep is sufficient (and necessary) It will allow you to get in a couple cycles of REM to stimulate the release of HGH (yes?). When it comes to a Saturday night, I will socialise and may not get home until mostly after midnight, sometimes not until 3am (like last night). I was talking to a friend about it (who is also on Cohens). My friend said when she has a late night and wants to sleep in until 11am, she will set her alarm to go off inbetween 7am-8am to get up and have her first meal. She then goes back to sleep for a couple hours; The idea being that if she didn't set her alarm and sleeps in until 11am she would have had her first meal too late and would therefore be eating her last meal after 9pm.

What I have been doing is just sucking it up and forfeiting my full 8 hours sleep, in favour of waking up early enough to have my first meal, and not going back to sleep at all because I have a feeling it interferes with HGH. I am yet to check out the Biology behind it.

Is my friend's way of getting around a late night out & the need to get a full 8 hours of sleep ok do you think? Also, What would be the affect of eating your last meal after 9pm?

I am meeting with my clinic girls this Thrursday so I'll be able to ask them but I would be really interested in anyone's opinions on here!!

[asy]

Your friend's idea is great, Nothing much you can do about getting to bed late once or twice a week, ya gotta have a life...

If you do get to bed that late, it's a great idea to get up and have your meal then get a few more hours, otherwise you'll throw your whole day out of whack. Still, if you don't mind getting to bed late the second day because you're food regime is out, (if you wake up at midday, the earliest you will get to bed that day will be about 11pm...

With regard to eating after 9pm, I believe you need to triage your activities, in order of importance thus:

1. Eat all meals set, in the exact quantities set.
2. Eat meals 5 hours apart (minimum)
3. Eat last meal prior to 9pm
4. Don't go to bed until 2 hours after last meal.

What this means is that it's FAR more important to eat all meals than to not eat after 9pm, so if you have no other choice, and it's 10pm, EAT YOUR DINNER.

Then, if you are tired, don't wait the 2 hours, but go to bed. The sleep will do you more good than the wait.

Hope this makes sense.

asy.

[Carissa]

Great! Thanks asy =)

[Shanara]

Great post Asy - wish I had known this one.

Then, if you are tired, don't wait the 2 hours, but go to bed. The sleep will do you more good than the wait.

Wish I had known this when I sat up, with my eyes hanging out on a couple of occasions.

Thanks
Shanara

[gunnlakes]

This is a great post, I have often wondered what is the best to do, as I work late Saturday nights to 2.00am and sometimes dont get my dinner break till after 9.00pm. I got a lot out of this post with the answers. thankyou

[Shanara]

*bump*

[Moonbeams]

So good to see some of these older posts with all the info I am looking for. I did spend one night trying to stay up 2 hours after I had eaten, fell asleep in the chair and had to go to bed anyway.

[shuki]

Ha had to smile ....clearly i am not as young as i think anymore as my problem is timing my meals so i can get to bed early enough (keeping in mind the 2 hour window) and i am only 40!!!! How well i remember the staying out till 3 in the morning thing....i suspect my weight though has also contributed by my unreasonable need for sleep

[Riss]

Blast from the past. The "old" me who started this thread. Good to see my silly ways still added some value to the forum. :P

[Michellebell]

LOL I wouldn't have recognised you Riss!

There's some great info in here from Asy. The triage idea of eating/time between meals/sleeping is good information to keep in mind.

[Gay'zin]

This is good info but one I was wanting answered I have all my meal times set out fine and I go to sleep well my problem is I wake any time after 5 am and can't get back to sleep. in the end I just get up, so on average I get 7 hours sleep a night.
If I can have a sleep during the day do I? I haven't because I read you need first 2 hours undisturbed sleep for HGH and if I sleep during the day it is usually 1 hour heavy sleep.
Rebecca