Ten days of sleep

Check this out!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11897472

Not bad, eh? Mind you. old Rip Van Winkle was reputed to have slept for twenty years. Now that's sleeping.

The Science of Swimming and Sleeping

Reprinted from swimnetwork

Getting a good night's rest makes a big difference.

by: Garrett Weber-Gale

11/13/10

As a young swimmer I never really paid attention to how much I slept.

I’d go to bed when I finished everything for the day and generally I would always wake up tired. On occasion, during my taper periods of the year, I would wake up naturally and feel like a million bucks.

This year the thought came into my mind of, “what if I could feel good most mornings when I wake up?” It’s a bit odd that this never seriously crossed my mind earlier in life. I think maybe, like many of you, I came to the conclusion that feeling tired and still worn out from the day before was just a fact of life. This year I set a goal for myself: I want to feel good when I wake up.

In the early days and weeks of working on this goal I was still doubtful it was possible, at least consistently. My first order of business was to keep track of when I went to sleep. In general I would go to sleep between 10:30 and 11pm. The three weekday mornings when I workout I woke up at 5:50am. The other two mornings I generally rose at around 9am.

Some of you who may know me are well aware that I’m an extremely excitable person. The smallest things can send me off into a crazy spurt of excitement, which often includes running around and/or screaming something! While I love being excitable, this is sometimes difficult to manage when it is time to go to sleep. When we travel on the USA Swimming National team, we have a great sports psychologist with us named Jim Bauman. Jim says going to sleep is not something that just happens, you need to prepare for it. Just like pre-race preparation we need to do a pre-sleep preparation in order to get ourselves relaxed and ready for bed.

Plain and simple, I decided my bedtime needed to be earlier. I decided I would make it my goal to be in my room by 9pm. Dr. Bauman also explained how the blue light in monitors actually stimulates us, which makes it harder to fall asleep. After 9 there is no TV or computer for me.

From 9pm on I stretch, read a book, write in a notebook, meditate, or roll my muscles out on a foam roller. What I quickly found was that I was ready to go to sleep within 45 minutes of the ‘quiet time’. Not only was I ready to go to bed earlier but once I got in bed it felt so natural to drift off into sleep. Before I could lie in bed for almost an hour before falling asleep.

I realize it is difficult for most of you to start the ‘quiet time’ at 9pm. When I was in school there was no way I could have done this on a regular basis either. So here’s my advice: At whatever time you can go to bed, begin to prepare yourself for sleep at least 20 minutes beforehand. My point is don’t just go straight from studying to lying in bed. Help your mind wind down and get ready to drift off. In addition, your muscles will appreciate the light stretching.

I’d love to say this technique works all the time but I’d be lying if I said it did. Certainly there are still times when I have things on my mind. Times when I’m excited, sad, mad, worried, sick, etc. I’m confident that by practicing this technique on a regular basis I’ll become more efficient at falling asleep. My goal is to get to the point where even when these feelings do arise I will still be able to find sleep more easily. What I can tell you is that on a much more regular basis than ever before, I wake up feeling good! Not only does this make my body happy but my mind is thrilled as well.

Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!

Goal-setting

"Coach, I tired. I so tired."

Woodlands!

Woodlands is a very sleepy area! Causeway Point (again) and somewhere else in Woodlands in a dining hall at lunchtime.

Jakarta-Singapore 08.35 a.m.

Is there something about sitting next to me on a plane that is soporific?

Blah, blah, blah

Thank you for posting! You get it :)

Polar Bear Having a Little Rest

A Synchronised Stretch & Yawn Session

I'm Flat Out Resting

The Chicken & the Dog

Quack, Quack, Quack - Let's Rest

Dream Train

MRT on Thursday morning!

Mid-morning snooze

My immediate three neighbours on the 09.30 flight from Singapore to Jakarta on Wednesday. Note; it is not a red-eye flight; it is not an overnight flight; it is not a long-haul flight. Its virtually a commuter flight in the mid-morning!!!

Tiring stuff being a Singaporean :)

Sleep

Image from:http://swimmingthechannel.blogspot.com/

It is not possible to train too hard. It is very easy to recover too little. The most important factor in recovery is sleep. According to Dr. Shirin Shafazand of the University of Miami, the consequences of too little sleep include, impaired glycogen storage, deterioration of glucose metabolism, impaired tissue recovery due to changes in cortisol levels, reduced levels of hGH, and a deterioration in aerobic endurance. It does not take a rocket surgeon or brain scientist to see the connection between sleep and sporting performance or the connection between lack of sleep and lack of sporting success.

Swimmers train for more hours and more often than most other sports (because they can; therefore they do; therefore other swimmers have to in order to stay competitive). Because of the demands of the rest of the day somewhere near 50% of a swimmer’s training is completed before breakfast so they have to wake up around 5 or 5.30 a.m. for training which starts at 6.00 or 6.30 a.m. Tracking back from that time means they need to be asleep by 8.00 or 9.00 p.m. at the latest in order to get an adequate amount. Failing to do that will result in a lack of energy substrates stored in the muscle fibers, inefficient metabolism of the reduced substrates, ineffective tissue repair after training, diminished skeletal growth, and deterioration of already developed physical abilities. In summation, the developed physical and physiological qualities will regress, the ability to train will diminish, the ability to respond to training will diminish, the ability to regenerate tissue will diminish, and overall skeletal growth will be suppressed. Additionally, a sleep-deprived athlete will often believe he or she is even more fatigued than they actually demonstrate, with all of the usual symptoms of fatigue exaggerated in the mind of the athlete. Their psycho-physiological volition will, therefore, be diminished – all part of a vicious circle which will drain them of energy and reduce their motivation to excel.

This set of circumstances exactly describes the swimmers of Singapore in general and Singapore Sports School in particular. “Sleep, perchance to dream.” Don’t sleep; don’t want to dream [of success]. The swimmers need to be either asleep by 9.00 p.m. at the latest, or start morning training at 8.00 a.m., or some combination of both. This aspect of Sports School life may be the single most important ingredient in changing the success-rate of Sports School swimmers.

Hamlet (III, i, 65-68)

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die,
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep—
To sleep—perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub!
sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely
The pangs of disprized love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.

This is just too easy

11.30 a.m. bus to Woodlands Interchange















Same bus, sorry about the picture quality!














12 noon, Causeway Point Mall















12.20 p.m. Sports School

ISOTIRED energy drink

Press Release:
From Nigel Bruce Hetherington

A groundbreaking new stimulant drink ‘ISOTIRED’ has been released in Singapore by Rushton Industries. Founder Clive Rushton says “It works a treat. Though the contents of the drink are completely unknown and we cannot guarantee there are no banned substances in the mix, it doesn’t actually matter as all we do is throw it over them when they come to training each morning – it has a unique and immediate awakening effect”

Kinky sleep

So Tired of Waiting for You
The Kinks
1965

I'm so tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you

I'm so tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you

I was a lonely soul
I had nobody till I met you
But you keep-a me waiting
All of the time
What can I do?

It's your life
And you can do what you want
Do what you like
But please don't keep-a me waiting
Please don't keep-a me waiting

'cause I'm so tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you

So tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you

I was a lonely soul
I had nobody till I met you
But you keep-a me waiting
All of the time
What can I do?

It's your life
And you can do what you want
Do what you like
But please don't keep-a me waiting
Please don't keep-a me waiting

'cause I'm so tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you

So tired
Tired of waiting
Tired of waiting for you
For you
For you

Normal Daily Life

"Workers" at Sports School during October school holidays.

The Singapore leg of the 2010 World Cup series was held at Singapore Sports School last weekend. These are some of the volunteers recovering between heats and finals.

Youth Olympic Games Singapore 2010

First up; "workers" at the recent Youth Olympic Games.

I-So-Tired

All Singaporeans seem to suffer from permanent sleep-deprivation. Consequently, the most common phrase heard around the practice pool is, "Coach, cannot. I tired, I so tired."

The phrases, "I tired," and "I so tired," are banned from the pool environment but that, of course, doesn't stop the behavior. Swimmers arrive at the poolside sliding their feet and moving at a pace which would embarrass a comatose tortoise.

So, this site is dedicated to the sleepy ones, the people who simply have to put their head down and travel dreamily to the 'land of nod.' We'll allow non-Singaporeans to be included; in fact we'll make any sleepy, non-Singaporeans honorary Singaporeans. Welcome one and all.