Is it really true that he who sleeps does not win?

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You must know the motto of bikepacking races - he who sleeps, does not win. Sleep restriction and sleep deprivation is a bottomless source of discussion and jokes in the community. Nevertheless ‘sleep deprivation’ can be very dangerous.

In this article we will discuss:

• When is sleep restriction an appropriate tactic?
• My personal experience with sleep deprivation. What is it like to not sleep?
• How to learn to stay awake and combat the ‘side effects’.

Is it really true that he who sleeps does not win?

There's only one answer to that - it depends. When Lachlan Morton set a new unofficial Tour Divide course record, he slept about 6 hours a day. That's a lot for a bikepacking racer. Of course, there's no telling if, if he would slept less, he would have been faster. Ideal sleep time depends on many factors:

• Individual needs
• Race length
• Opportunity - if I can find a good place to sleep, I can take advantage of that and sleep longer.
• Track situation - if I've had a harder day, it's better to sleep in.

The length of the race definitely has a huge impact. When planning, I usually don't calculate how many days or hours it will take me, but how many nights I will have to ride. Based on the number of nights, I plan roughly how much sleep I'll need.

The fewer nights the race takes, the more it pays to sleep less. The longer the race, the less sense it makes to restrict sleep and it's good to focus on sleep quality. I'm not going to focus on quality sleep right now. Now it's about not sleeping and when it pays to do so

One Night Race

Going one night without sleeping is positively accepted in society. Probably because part of society stay up until dawn on Friday night. Aside from fatigue, you probably won't be bothered by anything more serious. In the race it's probably not strategically worth it to sleep. At most, a short 15-minute nap will help to reboot the signs of fatigue in you.

I have trouble sleeping the first night, even if I wanted to. I just don't fall asleep, or only very briefly.

Race for two nights

Not sleeping for two nights will no longer be socially acceptable behavior, nor will it be faster from a pure racing perspective. What happens if you don't blink your eyes for even a moment?

• You get hallucinations
• Microsleeps - so you actually blink anyway
• Disorientation
• Your coordination and balance deteriorate
• Your mind starts playing tricks on you

The degree of symptoms will be individual, but expect it to slow you down or put your health at risk. This is why I recommend at least two 15-minute naps/powernaps - one around midnight and one around dawn. Don't make them longer, you'll just wake up groggy.

Is it worth sleeping longer? It hasn't quite worked for me. It's generally recommended to sleep for multiples of one and a half hours. That means 1.5 hours, 3 hours, 4.5 hours or 6 hours. This is so you wake up when you've completed all your sleep cycles, not in the middle of them.

Even if I slept three hours the second night of the race, I had symptoms of sleep deprivation stronger than with two naps. But it can be individual, so everyone has to try what works for them.

Whether longer sleep pays off also depends on whether you arrive at the finish line in the morning or evening. Let's say that a 3-hour sleep makes you go 15 minutes faster every hour than if you didn't sleep at all. That would mean that the sleep would pay for itself in 12 hours of moving. If you went for 3 hours sleep and move 3 hours to your destination, it would never pay off.

Multi-night race

It's good to start a systematic sleep schedule that you can maintain over the long term. It's not necessary to take everything off in one long sleep. Go for naps in the middle of the day.

The longer the sleep you need, the better the quality of your equipment. I emphasize, if your goal is to finish, it's not worth it to limit your sleep. And if you're going to sleep longer, don't copy the minimalist gear of those who only put their heads down for a few naps

Expect the same problems as acute sleep deprivation in the event of long-term sleep deprivation - hallucinations, microsleeps, poorer coordination ... just everything. Quite possibly more severe and not easy to get rid of.

My personal experience with sleep deprivation

I'm sure you've heard many funny stories about hallucinations. But how do they really work? In this section, you'll learn how I experimented with ‘sleep deprivation’ and how it affects me.

The race where I first significantly reduced my sleep was in 2019 at EXTREME BiKE 444. For me, it was the first one night race where I only slept a few hours. Even that seemed too much for me at the time. I didn't believe in the concept that it was possible to perform on only a few hours of sleep.

The first time I rode through the night at the Carpathia Divide race was the same year. I didn't plan it. It was a four-night race and I did the last one without sleeping. Just after dawn I was at the finish line because I didn't want to bivouac somewhere among the bears.

It was the first time I planned overnight ride the next year on EXTREME BiKE 444. I didn't experience any extreme effects of not sleeping anywhere, I was just tired. I took a short nap in the morning to ward off the fatigue. I did not experience any hallucinations.

Since 2021, I've been running one-night races without sleeping much and it's become the norm. But I'd stop at my participation in the Wschód race, it was run over four nights and almost all the side effects hit me unpleasantly with the prolonged sleep restriction:

• I had short-term memory lapses and problems with thinking in general. I felt disoriented because I wasn't sure where I had come from. At times I forgot where I was. I also forgot to pedal, which slowed me down. I had very strong feelings of déjà vu.
• I was suffering from microsleeps. Once I fell asleep and woke up in the middle of the road - still on the bike. Between cars it would be very, very dangerous.
• I was hallucinating. You don't imagine that, seeing dragons and unicorns on the horizon or anything like that. Hallucinations work more on the principle that I see a bush or a tree or a rock and it reminds me of something that I know can't be there. Often people or animals. Or I feel like I can see something peripherally, but when I turn around it disappears. I would liken it to dreaming while awake.

After these experiences, I was terrified of myself and didn't want to do it again. But a year later I got into a very similar situation at Hope 1000. My head was trying to force me to go to sleep at all costs. I stopped being able to concentrate on the fact that I was riding the race and the hallucinations distracted me from the ride. If I was pushing my bike up a hill, I would occasionally find myself stopping for no reason. What woke me up was an electric fence.

Later that year I did the West Carpathian Challenge, which was the first time I did a two-night race with only two naps. Ironically, I didn't feel any strong side effects. I think in general long-term sleep deprivation is more dangerous than acute sleep deprivation.

In the last two years, I have not gotten to the point where I would be experiencing micro-sleeps while riding, which I think is very important. Hallucinations don't bother me. I do, however, experience memory and thinking games repeatedly.

A lot of it is evident on Bohemia Divide, where there are long nights and the mind is working a lot and making things up. I feel like I have more voices in my head that help me to keep my speed up, eat and drink. I often stop noticing that I'm running a race and think I'm some kind of explorer who has to unlock the roads. It's hard to describe when I'm not in that state.

The longest basically non-stop ride I've done so far was on the Slovakia Divide - I got up in the morning, rode all day, all night, all day, took a 15 minute nap, rode all night, then all day until the next night fell and I got to the finish. Almost 60 hours in total. It sounds crazy.

How to learn not to sleep and combat ‘side effects’

Before we get into this, I want to stress that any messing around with sleep deprivation can be dangerous and it's important to know the line when it's okay to give up and just go to sleep. At least for a while.

I hear that the need for sleep is genetic. That's true, of course, but only to a point. Practically everything can be trained. And if training doesn't directly induce physical adaptation, it's still a good idea to prepare the mind for what's about to happen

I don't advise trying to sleep too little in your daily life. On the contrary! I certainly wouldn't attempt any sleep reductions in normal life. Sleep is very important, give yourself as much as you can handle. By training I mean - try to ride your bike late into the night occasionally, or indeed all night, ideally in a race. Learn what it does to your body and it will give you an idea of how much you can handle.

You will soon discover that fatigue does not work on the principle of gradual accumulation. It's not that with every hour of ‘sleeplessness’ you get more tired and sleepy. Your state oscillates up and down. Generally speaking, you will be sleepier overnight than during the day. The dawn should give you new energy. It doesn't work that well for me. I'd say just after dawn is when I'm most tired. I don't hallucinate during the night, probably because there's not much to see anyway, but instead I'm more haunted by mind games where I forget I'm racing.

What works great is the surprise and adrenaline. If you're going down a slight hill on asphalt, where you don't have to pedal or pay attention, your heart rate drops and you get very sleepy. Boredom induces drowsiness. That's why when you're sleep deprived, it's ideal to ride off-road when your body just needs to be alert and won't allow itself to shut down. If you run into trouble or get surprised, you'll immediately ride better. You need to get out of a rut.

Often it's not something you can consciously control because it happens randomly. Believe me, a storm will wake you up very quickly.

As for substances, you can use caffeine. I take 200mg caffeine tablets to use in an emergency. They won't cure your fatigue and sleepiness, but they will delay it for a while so it comes back with more force.

In general, anything that helps you forget you're sleepy is useful. Suspenseful audiobooks are good, some people can't get enough music If you're going on an overnight trip with someone, they can make the situation a lot easier. But you can also talk to yourself. I recommend talking out loud. If I forget what I'm doing, I tell myself who I am and what race I'm doing. That helps me stay focused.

I've heard it still helps to eat something or chew gum.

Afterword

Some sleep restriction will allow you to be faster, but it's good to be wary. It's not healthy and it's dangerous. Fighting sleep fatigue is extremely difficult and frustrating and can ruin the race experience. It's good to set boundaries that aren't worth crossing. And when the going gets tough, just go to sleep.

April 3, 2025 | #Bikepacking

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