The effects of waking in the middle of the night for a snack

[Crazy K]

There are lots of whey proteins that don't need to be blended.

Leave a scoop (or two) in a glass and when you wake just add some water and stir it up. It might not taste the greatest, but it gets the job done and you don't need to put a lot of thought into it. ie: sleep walk

 

[Crazy K]

make that a whey/casein drink....slower absorbtion

Problend 55 is decent.

 

[life is good]

Yes, I am currently waking up and drinking a pre-mixed protein shake mixed with milk. And I am currently gaining. But is it because of the the shake or becuase i walk around bloated with freakin food all day
probably its the excess calories. But I do it anyway to make sure im always in a posotive nitrogen balance, just keeping my bases covered. Im just saying your not going to see any awesome overnight results just cause you eat in the middle of the night. oh yah that cottage cheese sandwich sounds like a pretty good idea. although nasty. hope that helps.

 

[muscleburn]

hey blood_drinker

when i first read about waking half way through the night for an extra carb and protein load, that was just half of the story. The missing link is that when u go back to sleep, u get an extra dose of natural sleep GH which if u can combine with an after training nap, thats 4 GH hits a day. (except on non training days)

I had great results from it, but one thing u said about getting right back to sleep, it doesnt work like that, u have to be awake for at least 20 mins to get another GH hit. This is a problem that i eventually ran into. I got back to sleep, eventually and was late for work in the morning. So gave it up.

But with no change in training or diet, except the extra one during the night (30g whey protein and 50g of maxijul and a few tablespoons of EV olive oil), over 4 weeks (all I lasted) i made double my gains than the previous weeks.

 

[blood_drinker]

bro i find it impossible to sleep after training. my heart is just beating so fucking hard and while I am tired, I am wired at the same time. You probably know the feeling. What specifically were your results trying this after training nap?

 

[THE BOUNCER]

i just keep the protein powder in my room and when i get up to go to the bathroom, i throw a few scoops in a cup and add water. i don't like the whole pre-mix theory. it seems to me if whey is sitting in liquid for 3-5 hours, it will lose it's posative affects.

 

[blood_drinker]

The bouncer that's good thinking. Although i will have to mix it with water so the milk doesnt spoil besides my bed. o well i can take it no sweat.

 

[dieseltwin]

Muscleburn, you talked about a second GH release, which you could get because the stage 3 and 4 slow-wave sleep occurs in the first hour and a half sleep cycle after you fall asleep. However, you can also think of it the other way around, you get most of the REM sleep towards the 7 and 8 hour mark of continous sleep. REM sleep is where all memory organization and reorganization and all learning and being able to learn the next day occurs, so bloodrinker since you are a student (and so am I) you could think about what matters to you more. Its also shown that you have more of the slow-wave sleep after a day of heavy excersice and more REM sleep after heavy studying, so you if you want you could only wake up in the middle of the night after lifting days. just my thoughts.

-dieseltwin

 

[muscleburn]

blood_drinker,

the nap after training doesnt have to be a deep sleep, just a nap for about an hour, enough to get that GH release. When I did the nap after training and the split sleep at night, I doubled my weight gains from previous months and loss a few pounds of fat also. So the net gains in muscle were very good, but like I said a very hard discipline to follow.

dieseltwin,

The REM sleep that we enter, happens at the end of stage 4 sleep, therefore it has been proven that we can enter REM sleep twice a night. This all depends on how well we sleep and if we are over training or not. But the best way to find out if u have been in REM sleep when u wake during the night is if u have an erection. This function is a major part of REM sleep and is one of the tests they use to establish physical or psychological impotence.

 

[La0Tz3]

i dont know any theory about the different sleep phases (at least not anymore) but i remember from personal experience that if i wake up for half an hour to an hour, then go back to sleep, for the next 2 - 3 hours i will have the most intense dreams, and dreaming is REM sleep right?
its a technique used to induce lucid dreams .. sleep 5 hours, wake, then go back to sleep and you'll have awesome dreams which are easily remembered and very vivid