How disruptive are sleep disturbances really?

[GoGoGo]

Tl;Dr - Do you folks find that when life happens and you get less sleep, that it makes any noticeable differences to your gains? I know there is a bunch of theory and academic research out there, but does anyone have personal experiences to share? This is all other things being good by the way - when being able to lift practically an unlimited amount AND when diet is proper (high protein intake, lots of vegetables and some complex & low GI carbs, very little simple sugars).


Detailed version
I've read https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...977823&page=31 which was useful, but doesn't really pertain to this exact question nor does it really explain the affects of sleep on muscle retention and/or building, it mostly explains how to *feel* better in the morning.

Anyway, I ask because I've been working a job where I can start in later morning, and had been sleeping anywhere from 11:30pm-1:30am and waking up 8-9 hrs later at 7:30am-9:30am. Some days for example I may go to bed at 12 midnight and sleep until 8:30 am, etc... I really had no sleep issues

However my girlfriend's job recently changed (which is otherwise a great thing) and she has to get up consistently at 7, and I tend to wake up when her alarm goes off and not get back to sleep. So if you do the math, nights I cant get to sleep until midnight and whatnot, I get less sleep. This happened a few nights in a row now and I'm starting to feel like crap because for some reason I cannot get to bed earlier, but I keep waking up early. My clock is a mess and now I've been waking up 6 AM for some reason despite going to bed at midnight and such.

So I'm triyng to find out, when any of you have had various things in your life disrupt your sleep for a few weeks, has this made any noticeable difference to your lean muscle mass/body fat %/gains?

They say "you should get 8-10 hrs of sleep", but that doesn't really tell me how long I can get less sleep than that and probably be fine.

One thing I will definitely say is that I am currently in the best shape I've ever been in, and due to work flexibility, been able to consistently go to the gym for 2 hour sessions, in addition to going on ~2 hour bike rides throughout the week. This has put my resting heart rate in the low 50s and my endurance seems to keep rising. The downside to this though is that there seems to be a trend of it taking more and more physical labor in order for me to get sufficiently tired to knock out easily. For example, 2 days ago I lifted twice and went on a bike ride in the same day because I was helping a friend learn to lift. That night, I only sleep like 6 hrs and woke up, then yesterday I lifted another 2 hours, and tonight I tried to get to bed at 9pm, tossed and turned for 3 hrs, then decided to come and write this at almost 1 am. I basically don't even feel tired after doing 4 workouts (3 lifts, 1 1 hour bike ride) in a 24 hr period. I notice the more I work out, the more it seems to increase my body's ability to work out more without being tired.

I've made great gains so far though, and am always getting compliments about my physique, but that was also mostly done when I was sleeping the 8+ hrs per day, and now I'm getting a bit concerned. I also don't think it's realistic to ALWAYS expect to get 8-10 hrs of sleep though for one's entire life as things happen from time to time.

[air2fakie]

If by sleep disturbance you mean you're getting 7 hrs instead of 8-10, I don't think you're going to see any noticeable difference in gains as long as you don't feel that it's affecting your workouts themselves. But YMMV.

[PhDPepper1111]

Congrats on being in great shape and the work options!
I concur, you will likely not see a HUGE difference from from 8+ to 7, but as fakie says try it and see.
When I was younger I did 'fine' on 4-5 hours of sleep but have found I need at least 6-7 consistently these days.

[MrCarrot]

I did go through a period of sleeping (or attempting to sleep) 9-10 hours a night, but unfortunately half the time I couldn't get to sleep, or I would wake up in the early hours and not be able to get back to sleep for a couple of hours. Usually I would wake up at 6:30am with no alarm.

For the last 6 months (possibly longer) I've reverted back to my old ways and been going to bed later and probably only getting 6-7 hours sleep, and need an alarm to wake me up. But in the scheme of things I don't think it's made much difference and in a strange way I feel like they are 6-7 better hours sleep rather than 9-10 hours of tossing and turning.