Dead tired in the afternoon, wide awake at all other times

I’ve had to change my workouts from 7AM to 3PM for the last 2 weeks and I’ve been absolutely miserable. After much thinking, it hit me that I generally get super sleepy between 12PM to 3PM. From 6:30AM to 12PM I’m wide awake, as in I could go without coffee and eating breakfast and be full of energy. Once 12PM hits (regardless of what I eat) I’m asleep on my feet until about 4ish, then I’m chock full of energy again and have a hard time sleeping at night. I generally get about 6 hours of sleep a night and have a cup of coffee once a day, usually in the morning.

Is anyone else like this? I’ve heard of early risers and night owls, but what if you’re both and just dead asleep in the afternoon? If anyone else is like this do you also suffer when you have to train in the afternoon, and do you down any coffee before you have to workout?

Yes, although I get mine from about 3 - 4:30. I would hate to try to train during that time frame. I have a race tomorrow night at 6:45 which will be impossible to recover from before bed. Not that helpful advice if you can’t ride in the AM but man - riding and training in the AM is the best for me. In the winter I can sneak in some lunch rides and that works pretty well too. I would absolutely slam some coffee if I had to workout at 3. Try yerba mate too - I can’t drink coffee past noon on most days (affects sleep) but for some reason I am drinking some strong Mate now and I now it won’t mess with my sleep… when I was commuting a ton it was the ride home that was so hard, and I lived on that afternoon cup of Mate to get me home. It usually worked. :wink:

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Glad I’m not alone in this. My buddy that I ride home with from time to time is as perky as they get in the afternoon, complete opposite of me.

I did Joe Devel +1 yesterday which had a ton of anaerobic efforts, cramped like crazy in my hamstrings and went into the workout yawning :frowning:

I’ll try out the Mate one of these weekends and see how it affects me.

I’m pretty much exactly what you describe. I can’t seem to get anything over 7 hours of sleep no matter how tired I am and then I hit a tired zone in the afternoon yet I can’t nap. I love morning workouts because my body works best in the morning. I did a rare evening hard effort with a buddy last week and I couldn’t fall asleep that night. Plus my calf muscle locked up near the end of the ride which almost never happens…

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I’m the exact same way. Dead in the afternoon, but I have to train mostly in the afternoon.

For me - I’m getting too little sleep. I also average about 6hours of sleep. It is not enough. Monitoring my sleep with a sleep app has at least made me conscious of how little I get (I use Sleep Cycle) and I’m working with my partner to improve our bedtime.

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I used to get tired in the afternoon regularly, and I called it “the two o’clocks”. I’m not exactly sure why it stopped, but I think it was related to morning coffee and breakfast intake. I’ll pay close attention next time it happens and see if I have anything to report back.

For me, I’ll be dead in the afternoon if I don’t grab a cat nap at the end of my lunch break. 5-10 minutes is a miracle worker for feeling mentally fresh and alert. Otherwise, from about 1:30pm-4:00pm can be torture.

It’s a part of the natural circadian rhythm of many people. You might be better off taking a half hour nap as that will allow your body to go through the biological processes necessary to help you perform your best. A lot gets done by your body when you sleep. A recovery modality that cannot be substituted while you’re awake. A nap in the afternoon won’t make up for poor sleep during the night though. If you look at the training regimen of some pro endurance athletes, they get in a nap in the afternoons. For more info, check out this book. Highly recommended

Update:

Did Baird +2 around 9am today, what a difference. Not only was I able to complete it but I was also able to bump up the last interval a couple points. Hurt like hell but I was able to stick it out.

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