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Ultratrail runners must manage sleep to avoid accidents and hallucinations.
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Runners use various sleep strategies, from micro-sleeps of a few minutes to longer breaks in long-distance races.
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Fueling stations offer safe places to sleep, while sleeping along the route is risky and not recommended by race organizers.
Ifyou are an ultratrail runner or thinking of becoming one, one of the most important questions you probably ask yourself is: how and when do ultratrail runners sleep?
Tackling races that exceed 100 km requires not only physical endurance but also judicious sleep management.
Lack of sleep can lead to crashes, hallucinations and serious falls, putting not only your race but also your health at risk.
What happens when you don’t sleep for many hours (or days)
Imagine you have been running for more than 24 hours, your body is exhausted, and your mind is starting to play tricks on you.
You see things that aren’t there, you seem to hear nonexistent sounds, and your ability to coordinate is seriously impaired.
This scenario is not uncommon among ultratrail runners, especially those who race distances over 100 km.
Not getting adequate sleep during a race can turn an exciting adventure into a dangerous challenge against yourself and the elements.
How do ultratrail runners do it?
The answer is not one-size-fits-all: it depends on the distance of the race, your experience, whether you are aiming for a placing, or whether your preparation for the race has included adequate rest or you are approaching it already with low batteries.
First of all: which races plausibly require breaks for rest and sleep?
Given that they are run in the mountains and over several days, this issue applies only to those longer than 100 km.
For those of lower mileage, however, it is more common to never stop.
Then there are also those who practically do not sleep anyway even in the longest races, such as champion Courtney Dauwalter: in a 240-mile race, she was able to sleep for less than half an hour in total, dividing her sleep into micro-naps of one or two minutes each.
On average, ultratrail runners sleep more than she does: in fact, they stay for anywhere from 30 minutes in one French study to 49 minutes to an hour for another.
Where to sleep?
The main options are refueling stations, located along the route, which provide a minimum of comfort and safety.
Alternatively, some runners stop along the route, laying on the ground the windproof/rainproof jacket they use for running.
However, sleeping outdoors exposes you to risks and is not recommended, especially by organizers of races like the UTMB: you can end up prey to dangerous animals or even other seemingly more harmless ones, such as insects or ticks, or you can be disoriented when you wake up and never find your way back to the course, especially at night.
Most optimizers eat an energy snack before falling asleep to take advantage of the body’s assimilation during rest.
To wake up, on the other hand, a little bit of everyone relies on a GPS or cell phone alarm clock.
Or perhaps those who are assisting them along the way.
Before the race
Here, too, schools of thought are divided (meaning that everyone chooses the solution that suits them best): there are those who deprive themselves progressively in the days leading up to the race, so that they get used to the sleep deprivation, and those who fill up in advance, sleeping as much as possible beforehand so that they do not have to suffer the deprivation during.
You don’t have to do this
To sleep or not to sleep during a race is a personal and strategic decision.
Deprivation certainly helps speed up your race time, as long as it does not compromise your sense of balance and proprioception.
That is, in other words, that it does not send your internal navigation system into crisis.
It is equally true that saving your energy for difficult conditions that can often occur even suddenly in the mountains is very important.
It is crucial to learn about your limits and needs, training yourself not only to run, but also to manage sleep, nutrition and race pace.