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Sciencebenchmarked·
Sleep under 6h and my lifts fall apart. Anyone have actual data on this?
I log sleep (watch) and every set (notebook) and I finally sat down and compared them over 5 months. Not rigorous, n=1, but:
Nights with 7+ hours: top set of squat averaged 142kg x 5
Nights with 6-7: 139 x 5
Nights under 6: 131 x 5, and two of the four "failed the planned set" sessions were in this group
That is an 11kg swing on the same program at the same bodyweight. Bench swing was smaller, about 5kg.
Is this just me or is there real research showing an effect this big? Most of what I find is about reaction time and "perceived exertion", not actual load lifted.
There is decent research but it mostly looks at total sleep deprivation (24-36h awake), which is not your situation. The partial restriction studies (5-6h for a few nights) tend to show small drops in max strength and bigger drops in repeated effort and motivation. Your 11kg on a 5 rep set fits that - a 5RM is a repeated effort test more than a max strength test.
The other thing is the failed sets. Low sleep raises RPE at a given load. So you were not necessarily weaker, you felt the weight more and quit earlier. Both matter in practice.
The RPE point is interesting. Looking back at the notes, the under-6 sessions have comments like "felt heavy from the first warm up". So yeah, perceived.