Exercising on no sleep

[Guitar_Dean]

I've been suffering from sporadic insomnia for many years. Sporadic meaning I can go weeks with no problem, and with no apparent reason suddenly I'll be unable to sleep at all for several nights, and then it'll pass.

Anyways, my question is about exercising the day(s) after getting no sleep. After a night of no sleep I would feel quite light-headed and have muscle aches, and of course be extremely tired. Often I'll force myself to exercise in this state to tire myself out completely so that I'll be able to sleep the next night. It has mixed results - sometimes it works well, but other times I still can't sleep, and then the day after my pain is compounded by the previous day's exercise.

My question is: am I doing my body harm by working out when it's already under stress from not sleeping?

Overall I do think that even if I don't fall asleep the day of my exercise, it still shortens the periods of insomnia. However I worry that this is putting too much stress on my body. And I do exercise regularly during normal periods of sleep too, if that info matters.

 

[sushii]

I have no idea whether there are health risks associated with exercising on no sleep, but I do it all the time. Like you I have insomnia, but mine is pretty much constant so if I want to exercise regularly, I often have no choice but to do it when I'm sleep deprived. I've never noticed any negative effects from it....

 

[Heuristic]

Guitar,

I think it's fine, especially if you find that it helps you sleep. You might think about whether you need to exercise to exhaustion on days following little or no sleep, though. The therapeutic effects of exercise can be had without pushing yourself to exhaustion every day. Of course, if it just feels good to do that, then keep it up. If you exercise regularly without a problem then your body is likely up to it.

 

[fatstep]

At football camp they made us stay up days then made us workout one last hard time before we could sleep, and we won the state championship so it can't be that bad...