Is it possible to sleep for eight hours like this?

A few days ago, a runner told me that he gets up at 4:00 every morning to run. I asked him if this would affect his sleep. He said it did not affect his sleep. He went to bed at 8:00 every night. Think about it, "go to bed at 8:00 every night", how boring and dull the life of us old men who run is. This also brings up a question, is it enough for us to get 7-8 hours of sleep? In other words, in addition to the length of sleep, is there an optimal time period?

A sleep study on East Asians showed that the best sleep time is seven hours, and the best time to fall asleep is "10 to 11 o'clock." If you go to bed too early or too late, it will significantly increase the probability of cardiovascular accidents.

If we understand some knowledge of traditional Chinese medicine, it will be easier to understand this truth.

When we sleep at night, our bodies are not only resting, but also working in another way. It can be understood like this: the body is like a car running on the road during the day, and goes into the repair room for repair and adjustment at night. The repair room has fixed opening and closing times: around 11:00 pm to around 6:00 am. If you come too early, the door is not open. No matter how long you stay, the repair room will close at 6:00 am, and it will be ineffective.

To sum up, in addition to ensuring a sleep length of 7-8 hours, there is also an optimal time: falling asleep between 10:00 and 11:00 pm.

Back to running, the essence of running is a kind of damage to the body, so we need enough good sleep to adjust and regenerate.

It is generally recommended not to perform strenuous exercise two hours before going to bed, as this will cause sympathetic nerve excitement and affect sleep; at the same time, if the amount of exercise is too much, it will also affect sleep.

As runners, we should be able to "run well" and "sleep well" at the same time, which is what we often say about exercise: "combining movement and stillness, and balancing yin and yang."