expedition playbook: sleep strategy

​Up until this point, this Expedition Playbook series has focused largely on training and preparation. Today, we’re going to pivot to in-race considerations. The next several articles will tackle selected topics related to the actual experience, strategy, skills, and approaches that will come up after you and your team cross the start line.
 
First up: Sleep Strategy.
 
Multiple nights of continuous racing is, perhaps, the single biggest difference between shorter day-long events and expedition racing. The sleep deprivation piles up, and past three days, racing straight through really isn’t an option. Even in a 72-hour event, most teams will sleep a bit. Past three days, however, sleep strategy really becomes its own discipline. And it’s an important one.
 
How your team approaches sleep can radically impact your experience and race. Extreme sleep deprivation also adds risk to the event, so safety comes into play. Sleepy racers have a harder time navigating effectively. Exhaustion can breed a false sense of reality, and teams can throw away tens of hours of productive racing to inefficiency, wasted time, mistakes, and more. Tempers fray and sometimes break, and for some teams, bad sleep strategy can become an insurmountable obstacle, preventing individuals or teams from reaching the finish line.
 
At the same time, expedition races are massive undertakings, so there is a constant sense of pressure to GO, GO, GO! Many believe that stopping to sleep means they will run out of time. Those looking to compete against other teams – versus the course – worry that they will fall too far behind. While some of this may, at times, be true, there are a number of myths out there about sleeping…or not sleeping…in an expedition race that deserve your team’s attention prior to confronting sleepmonsters on a dark, rainy night. And with some exceptions, effective and well-timed sleep management will most likely lead to a more enjoyable and successful experience and often times a better finish.
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Myth #1: Adventure racers don't sleep

​We do actually, and many of us try to sleep very deliberately!
 
In races under 48 hours, most experienced racers try to go wire to wire without any shuteye; if you want to compete, you likely won’t be able to afford much if any sleep.
 
Past that 48-hour range, however, most teams start to work sleep into their race strategy. For a three-day race, that may just be a few hours on night two. In races of four days are more, most of the top teams in the world are sleeping two, three, even four hours almost every night once they hit night two.
 
This may not sound like a lot for a sport that runs continuously over several days, but compared to many teams who measure successful sleep in minutes vs. hours, that’s a full night sleep!

myth #2: sleeping on the trail is the only way to go

Years ago, in the midst of a five-day race (location and teammates shall remain anonymous), we were digging into night two. The team was exhausted, a cold rain was falling, and we were setting off on a leg that we knew would offer us no reprieve. It was the kind of situation that any experienced team knows can end in disaster.

​Leaving TA, we had the luxury of being in a small village…and there was a local hotel.
 
One teammate mentioned the possibility of getting a room.
 
On several previous occasions, we had checked into a hotel in the middle of a race when the opportunity presented itself and when the timing was right. A few hours in a warm bed, out of your wet race gear, free from distractions like TA noise, traffic, or general sounds of the world does wonders for your next 24 hours of racing. Some of our teammates have even indulged in a hot shower. Imagine a hot shower when your body is worn down and potentially near pre-hypothermic levels!

Not what we'd recommend...

​In that unnamed five-day race, another teammate scoffed.
 
“We aren’t out here to sleep in a hotel,” they said.
 
We then “slept” on a cold concrete bus platform two blocks away, shivering for an hour or two…
 
We know adventure racers enter the woods to test themselves against the elements. We also know that a long, cold, dark bike stage will always be more enjoyable if it follows a couple hours of sleeping in a comfortable and warm spot.

​​That may mean a hotel. It may mean a barn, an abandoned bunk house, a utility shed, a u-haul trailer, a ski hut, the floor of a public restroom, or a heated covered wagon. We have encountered and slept in each of those places at various points in our adventure racing career. We know many other teams with similar stories.

Time and again, the more rested teams take advantage of the rest of the field’s fatigued states as multi-day races wear on. Where you sleep really can make a huge difference.

Some other considerations on this point:

• When pre-race planning, try to project where you will be during the nights. Are there towns? Houses? Structures? Campgrounds? Other potential legitimate shelter? Barns, trailers, containers, bathrooms? Try to identify possible target sites that roughly match up with your time projections and route, knowing you will surely need to adapt at some point.
• Plan for warmth. In 2015, we competed in the incredible Expedition Alaska. It was the last time we competed in an expedition race without some sort of ground insulation. Few races require this equipment, but what a difference it can make. As always, we all want to cut weight, but this addition to our packs has made a big difference for sleeping comfort and efficiency. We carry an ultrathin and light foam pad. It folds right up and weighs a few ounces. And it works well enough to keep us considerably warmer when sleeping. If you have spent enough time in the outdoors, you likely know that hypothermia can strike on a warm summer day… or night. Some studies suggest that more people succumb to it during the summer than the winter, because they enter the wilderness less prepared for the variable conditions. A wet sleep on uninsulated ground during a lukewarm summer night can and will suck warmth right out of your body. Stay there long enough, and your race is over.
• When you can, sleep at night. It’s not always possible, but even when you’re sleep deprived, your team will likely collectively sleep better in the dark than daylight. Circadian Rhythms and all. Sleep science is an enormous rabbit hole, especially when combined with REM Cycles, that raises all sorts of interesting questions about the ideal time and length to sleep. We’ll leave the heavy research to you, but know that natural sleep (quiet, dark, measured blocks of time) is way more effective than unnatural sleep (high noon, no shade, traffic going by) at helping you maximize your rest and positively impact your performance and overall experience.

myth #3: 15 minutes, when someone needs it, is enough

​There are times when a quick nap IS enough, but anyone who has studied sleep or who has experienced sleep deprivation knows that fifteen minutes here and there might be enough to keep the train inching along, but it’s almost never enough to get that train cruising for a sustained period of time. It’s appropriate when you just need to get to the end of the leg and the wheels are coming off, but it should not replace more legitimate sleep.
 
Let’s take the legendary Kiwis from Avaya/Seagate as an example. They tend to race through night one, but they then settle into banking sleep most nights, if not every night, thereafter. Often a couple or even several hours of sleep at a time. Their race resume speaks for itself.
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​We, too, have found this strategy to be useful and often shoot for blocks of three hours, plus or minutes, pending on the race, situation, and time to the finish line. Itmay not work for everyone, but every time we have raced a multi-day event since adopting this strategy, we find we really come into our own later in the event. We sometimes let teams pass us, but we have found that we catch back up and then put time on those teams as the race progresses.
 
It doesn’t always work in that the time of day may not be ideal or we struggle to find an appropriate place to stop, but planning where we might sleep starting on night two is always a major priority for us.
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Catnapping in Ireland

myth #4: ta's are the best place to sleep

​​Sometimes they are! But often they are not. True, you may have the luxury of better access to sleeping gear (tents and sleeping bags if you don’t have to carry them on course, inflatable sleeping pads, inflatable pillows, etc.) and you will be near your gear bins, so extra food and clothes will be available.

Bedding down in the Scottish Highlands

​That said, even quieter TAs often have a fair bit of activity. Teams come and go, and volunteers and vehicles are often in constant motion. Many TAs tend to be in busier locations: parking lots, public facilities, etc. You are often in TAs at inopportune times to sleep (middle of the day, for instance), and it’s not uncommon for some members of the team to experience a jolt of energy and adrenaline while in TA, making it impossible to take advantage of the down time.

​Sleeping out of TA comes with different challenges (mostly related to what gear you have with you to sleep comfortably and where you will decide to physically lie down), but most experienced teams avoid TAs if there are other options. For other options, review Myth 2!
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final thoughts

Like anything with AR, there is no right way to approach sleep strategy. The reality is, your team will experience highs and lows with sleep, regardless of how well you plan it out ahead of time. One teammate will be asleep on their feet and the others will be wired. Two people will bank some good sleep on night two, but the rest of the team will toss and turn and “wake up” more tired than when they laid down. You will make a bad decision or be forced into an unplanned sleep that isn’t restorative or productive. You will need to be flexible and adapt, knowing that the best laid plans may be immediately ruined by a navigation error that delays you by several hours, disrupting your entire plan for multiple nights of sleep.
 
Still, planning and strategy can go a long way. Talk as a team and approach sleep as the fifth discipline of expedition racing after running, biking, paddling, and navigation. We’ll leave you with some final nuts and bolts to toss around as you plan for this added challenge:

• Earplugs and eye masks (or buffs) help light sleepers, especially during a daytime sleep.
• Caffeine helps. But it shouldn’t replace sleep in a true expedition race.
• Set multiple alarms. One likely won’t be enough.
• Consider your gear before sleeping, especially if sleeping in a TA. It usually makes sense to have everything ready BEFORE you sleep. Afterwards, you will likely be a mess. Easier to get things ready before sleeping and then just wake and go. And even that is harder than it sounds.
• Eat and drink before sleeping. A lot. Give your body a chance to use that fuel to better repair itself. You’ll still be exhausted, even after a few hours of sleep. Don’t deplete yourself, too.
• Get dry. This may not be possible, but try to find a dry location and get into dry clothes.
• Insulate. Dry clothes. Fleeces. Rain gear. Space blankets and emergency bags. Sleeping bags. Whatever you can do. If you don’t have a ground pad, is there any way you can get off the cold ground? Remember, even in warm weather, the ground will drain the heat from your body. Hypothermia sets in when your body temp falls below 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Even in the summer, the ground is reliably colder than that.
• It’s basic, but sleep at night. Not only because of all the scientific reasons to do so, but also because night is the hardest time for racing. Navigation is harder, technical travel is slower, there is less to look at and engage you, and darkness will wreak havoc on your mind. Burning three hours of good daylight to sleep is not efficient.
• When you can, elevate your feet when you’re sleeping. More on foot care in our next edition, but sleeping with your feet up can do wonders for inflammation!

​​Finally, support each other. Pushing a teammate past their breaking point is not only unsafe but it also a sign of poor teamwork and likely won’t help your team reach the finish line. Forcing an overly-exhausted teammate to press on may fracture relationships. It also won’t help you as much as you think when it comes to maintaining steady forward progress or a fast 

pace. Take care of your teammates; if this means sleeping, whether it be a maintenance nap or a strategic big block of rest, do it.
 
You enter the woods for the love of the journey, in all its highs and lows. It’s much easier to enjoy that journey when you are in a good mood, sharper with your navigation, and moving efficiently. Without sleep, it’s much harder to really enjoy life. Race or not.