Yesterday I spent a good bit of time shoveling snow. Way more physical exertion than I am used to.
After a workout like that, most people would sleep like a log, right? I guess I am not most people.
I used to be normal and sleep well after a lot of work, but sometime in my early thirties I switched. If I work hard in the yard, I sleep terribly. Starting at about 2ish, I wake up fully every thirty minutes. Toss and turn all night.
Has anyone else experienced this? Anyone have any ideas what would fix it?
Yeah are you taking anything for pain after you shovel? I know that I typically don’t get sore until a day later. You might be starting to get sore around 2 AM and it’s keeping you awake.
I have the same occurrence if I go to the gym after 7pm. It seems if I get my heartrate/metabolism/adrenaline going late in the day it keeps me awake for quite a while. Like having caffeine late in the day.
It sounds to me like you’re hitting a second sleep pattern.
Prior to artificial lighting, it was not uncommon for people to sleep in two shifts: go to bed at sundown, but wake up around midnight and stay awake for an hour or two, then go to sleep again.
Things like exercise and eating proteins in the evening can trigger it. Eating carbs can help the body sleep.
If you can’t get to sleep after waking up at 1 am, don’t toss and turn. Get up and stay up for half an hour or so, maybe eat some toast or that old standby of your grammie, drink a nice glass of warm milk. And don’t turn on a screen. Read a book in low light.
I am 68, active, and I feel tense all over (muscle) when I do this type of thing, and of course, I can’t sleep. Doing some deep stretching helps with this, but sometimes the adrenalin is just high (probably due to muscle repair occurring), and it is hard to relax. I see my doc twice a year, and I am on cholesterol meds, so that might be an issue too (lipitor can cause muscle issues). No pain, I am in good health, but I am older and I just go with the flow. However, it isn’t a constant thing, and I sleep very well most nights. Sometimes even when I do tons of activity. It isn’t consistent.
But this highlights a point for all of us gray-haired folks. “Way more than normal” is a lot more out of reach than it was. The way to be able to do that level of exertion on a snow day is to do something a lot closer to that on non-snow days.
I am certainly much more couch potato than athlete. But I’m sure seeing the downsides to being that way too.
I came here to ask if it was pain that kept you awake, but since you’ve confirmed that you had no pain, I would guess your body is playing adrenaline tricks on you, as @knavette57 suggested. I find that after a much more physical day than normal, I sleep really well, but only for a few hours, perhaps half what is the norm for me (4-5 vs 8+). I used to lie there, trying to get back to sleep, but I’ve found that if I get up and just start my day a few hours earlier than typical, I’m actually pretty well rested and I don’t feel sleep-deprived that day. No harm, no foul.
It might be worthwhile – and potentially telling – if you compare your heart rate post-exertion (maybe an hour after, and then again when you’re struggling to get to sleep) with your baseline heart rate (ie, when you’ve had no particular exertion for a day or two).
It may be that your body is trying to ‘catch up’ with a bit of a ‘deficit’ from pushing your body. For younger, fit people, this return to baseline can be awfully quick. The older we get and/or the less cardiovascularly fit we are, the longer this can take.
You may want to try Wim Hof breathing to try to slow your body down and facilitate sleep.
I know this situation well OP, but it only happen to me if I wasn’t in shape for a specific physically difficult task. That’s what’s happening to you, imo. You’re suddenly putting your body/muscles through a huge workload you normally don’t do - it’s your muscles and joints sore from the stress on your body. I work a pretty physical job and for that reason I purposely stay in good shape so I can sleep at night. But.. if I have to work say an extra 3 hours of hard physical exertion the same thing happens to me - waking up every hour two and rolling around most of the night. I usually take a CBD gummy which helps, but if you really beat yourself up, you’re just gonna likely have sh*tty sleep unfortunately.