How important is sleep on gear? I've got insomnia. I've had it since middle school, but I no longer depend on medications. Medications are something I only take when I really need them. The thing is, on most days, I only get 5 or 6 hours of sleep. Some days I get 7 or 8. I rarely ever get 9. I took a 10 mg deep web ambien for the first time after years a week ago, and I slept for 23 hours without any interruptions. There's only been half a dozen times in my life where I've slept more than 20 hours, so that really shocked me. Anyway, I'd say I average out around 6 hours of sleep every 24 hours.The main thread is the first paragraph, but I also want to know what you anons think of ambien. It's the most powerful sleep medication. It reduces sleep interruptions (the times when you wake up in the middle of the night, usually immediately before falling right back to sleep for normal people), and it allows you to sleep longer. The thing is, after sleeping for a week on plenty of ambien, I lost a bit of strength. I was also super stressed out. I went from doing 245 for 4 after doing two sets of 225 for 8 to starting out with 245 for 2 followed by 225 for 6 reps, then 225 for 5 reps. This could be due to less caloric intake due to so much sleep, though, but this experience has made me worried that even slight ambien usage (like 5mg every now and then) could actually harm my gains. Does ambien actually directly do anything to harm hypertrophy or strength?
bump
>>74114542Have you tried sleeping on a bed?
>>74114542High estrogen leads to imsomnia, get some bloods.>i'm a big boi now taking GEAR I take drugs calm down buddy
>>74114881I'm asking before I start gear.
>>74114542I would steer clear of ambien and focus on developing sleep hygiene. ambien fucked me up several years ago, and people that I know take it eventually ditch it for side effects. it stops being effective eventually, you become a literal zombie during waking hours, I started sleepwalking - once I even drove somewhere while "asleep". yes I did notice it made me weaker, less energetic and more foggy during the day. stuff is bad news.
>>74115564The reason why ambien is prescribed is because it doesn't affect sleep architecture very much, at least based on current research. The reason why quaalude was ditched was because it ruined sleep quality. People were barely getting any deep sleep on that stuff. I want to see a paper on ambien and strength gains.
>>74115594well there is definitely this:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4246488/notably that hand grip strength improved after ceasing zolpidem (ambien)also, "muscle weakness" is a known side effect listed for zolpidem
>>74115694Thank you so much, anon. I wonder what ambien and these benzos are doing. The strength I lost from one workout to the next was very shocking. It was a relatively huge loss in strength from just a few days.
Bump. Exactly how fucking important is sleep? What is the difference between 5 and 8 hours? Is it just hormones, because if this is the case, then simply taking growth hormone will solve this issue. I'm sure some other recovery takes place during sleep that's important that no steroids can replace, but if sleep doesn't matter as much on gear, then I'll be pretty happy with my case of insomnia.
Gear makes sleep more important because you are going to have more stress on your ability to recover. It's unintuitive and people make shit up without knowing any better. You are going to get stronger and your nervous system will become more efficient at utilizing muscles for a stronger contraction. It beats you up more so you need more sleep and more food.
>>741168567/10 purely due to being skinny and having decent fat distribution. Based on her arms and her tits, she's been coasting on youth and it's beginning to catch up to her. Imagine if she made an effort to eat well and stay fit.
>>74116870>You are going to get stronger and your nervous system will become more efficient at utilizing muscles for a stronger contraction. It beats you up more so you need more sleep and more food.So sleep is needed to recover the nervous system (motor neuron system)? From the research I've done, it looks like it's only important for spurts of growth hormone, which you can easily take exogenously. Of course, sleep is important for your brain and mental health, but I average out around 6 hours of sleep every 24 hours due to difficulties falling back asleep. Would this really fuck with gear usage? My primary goal would actually be strength gain, not muscle gain.
>>74116921I'm not going to speak to research because science is gay. I do not know the exact mechanism that causes the fatigue, I didn't say your nervous system will be stressed, I said it will be more efficient. Regardless, I know sleep will always improve recovery. If you are the type of person who functions well on 6 hours of sleep, you don't necessarily need more but definitely don't do less. The lack of sleep wouldn't hurt the gear use, it just increases your chances of getting to a point of overtraining (under recovering). It doesn't matter if you are doing it for strength or muscle gain. Good GH is pretty expensive. Lastly, if you willing to do something that has the potential to do permanent damage to your body but you aren't willing to get enough sleep I don't see the point in trying.
>>74116976>Lastly, if you willing to do something that has the potential to do permanent damage to your body but you aren't willing to get enough sleep I don't see the point in trying.It's not so much about willing. I just learned in this thread that actual drugs that help with sleep interruptions (I'm pretty sure nearly everyone has these, but normies will immediately just fall back asleep) like ambien actually kill your strength. I was getting incredible sleep for so many days, but I went from benching 245 for 4 on my third set on what was then 5 hours of sleep a day (yes, 5 hours) to benching 245 for 2 after several days of normal sleep thanks to ambien. I really want to figure out what the fuck is going on with ambien, because this is the only fucking thing that would allow me to regularly get 8 hours of sleep. I can occasionally fall back asleep and get 7 to 8 (and sometimes even 9) hours of sleep, but most days, I just get 5 or 6.
>>74117016>considering steroids with a weak bench
>>74117029I used to be able to hit 355 for a single every workout, but I could never make it to 365. I then lost 100 pounds, and a lot of that was muscle, and I lost a ton of strength. I've been gaining it back pretty quickly, though, even with the poor sleep. I've been recording all my workouts since February. These are just a few demonstrating my fast progress, despite my poor sleep.February 29, 2024Bench1858 Reps2 RIRMarch 21, 2024 (Three weeks later)Bench2056 Reps0-1 RIRMarch 26, 2024 (5 days later)Bench2254 Reps0 RIRMarch 30, 2024 (4 days later)Bench2257 Reps0-1 RIRApril 12, 2024 (13 days later)Bench2258 Reps0 RIR*Way more volume this workout, though, and this is the workout I did 245 for 4 in, but since it wasn't my first set, I can't say for certain how many reps I would've hit. The progress is notably slower between this workout and the March 30th one, because at this time, I was getting a constant spell of 5 hours of sleep each night. I was still impressed that I was stronger from my previous workout, though.April 20, 20242452 Reps0 RIR*Ambien fucked me up. This was literally the workout after my previous one, and I only slept three times since, but the ambien made me sleep so fucking long each time.Anyway, I believe this is pretty rapid progress from what I've typed out. I don't plan on roiding immediately for several reasons, one of them being my sleep. I seriously want to sort my sleep out as much as possible before I begin my first cycle. Another thing I would likely do is get a leg curl machine to help me isolate hamstrings on days when I can't get to the gym and have to do a squat workout at home. I would likely start this cycle three to six months from now.
>>74117183Have u ever talked to a doctor about your sleep. It could be a mood disorder.
>>74117255It's because of OCD and childhood trauma from my fucking cunt of a grandma who would watch TV loudly until 11 or midnight. I got her a pair of headphones, and I begged her to wear them, and she laughed at me and told me to fuck off. She would always bully me. Although, I did have insomnia from the time I was a baby. I was being abused for quite a while. My mom and grandmother would shove multiple bottles of milk into me and then shove benadryl up my nose to make me stop crying. My adoptive father saved my ass, but I still had to grow up with my witch of a grandma. I can't hold a normal job due to my insomnia.
>>74117255>>74117294The only medications I really take are belsomra and trazodone, but I rarely ever take them. My real issue is falling back asleep.
>>74117466You may want to talk to a doc bro.
