How One Bad Night of Sleep Wrecks Your Performance
Description
We’ve all heard that sleep is important—but how bad is one bad night really? In this week’s episode, Anthony unpacks the physiology behind acute sleep deprivation and explains why even a few hours less can have measurable effects on strength, endurance, hormones, and mental performance.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- What happens to your body and brain after a single poor night of sleep
- How sleep loss impacts testosterone, growth hormone, cortisol, and glycogen resynthesis
- Why your reaction time, coordination, and balance mimic being legally drunk
- The drop in strength and endurance you can expect (with real data ranges)
- How to modify your training to reduce injury risk when you’re tired
- Evidence-backed strategies to bounce back — caffeine, creatine, naps, and recovery routines
- How to prevent one night of poor sleep from turning into a full-blown performance decline
Key Takeaways:
- Even one night of <5 hours sleep can reduce testosterone 5–10% and halve growth hormone release.
- Reaction times and decision-making degrade to the level of legal intoxication after ~24 hours awake.
- Training at high intensity while sleep-deprived increases injury risk — focus on technique and aerobic work instead.
- Creatine (20–30 g acutely) may offset cognitive decline from sleep deprivation.
- Sleep hygiene and recovery practices can restore performance faster than you think.
Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro: How bad is one night of sleep?
01:15 – What happens physiologically when you’re sleep deprived
03:00 – Hormones and recovery breakdown
04:45 – Reaction time and cognitive performance
06:00 – How sleep loss affects strength and endurance
08:30 – How to train when you’re sleep deprived
11:00 – Creatine and cognitive protection
14:00 – Caffeine, naps, and recovery tools
16:30 – Sleep hygiene and recovery habits
19:00 – Final takeaways and key lessons
Referenced Resources:
United States
