pigou

Back when I was lifting fairly regularly there were a lot of periods of times that I wasn't able to get a good nights sleep. I found that I was actually able to get in a pretty good workout even when I was tired when I was on a creatine cycle. Now that I'm in grad school for the next couple of years it looks like I won't be able to banish sleep deprivation completely. But riding on little sleep for me is horrid. Are there any sleepless people out there that have used creatine to resolve this?

Carbonfiberboy 

It may not be applicable to cycling. Intensity is usually too low. OTOH, you could try just doing Tabata intervals as your normal workout. Very quick, so you won't lose much sleep time. Very intense, so lots of bang for the buck. Creatine might help those - hard to say, never tried it. Let us know. If you don't know what they are, google.

You could try them first thing in the morning, after coffee, before eating. That might work out very well for you.

pigou

Not a bad idea. If nothing else the boost in VO2max would be welcomed. I did something similar for speed training when I tried running with my dad and it did wonders. I think I'll give it a shot sometime and post back here what happens.

Carbonfiberboy 

If you do, try for a couple of weeks with creatine and a couple weeks without. CW is that creatine won't make any difference.

thenomad

Never noticed any difference in sleep when on Creatine. It does delay the muscle fatigue in heavy lifting so maybe that's what you felt?
I'm on creatine for one month on, one off. Making sure to do heavy lifting. I'm riding to work and back and on the weekends.

No difference in sleep patterns, most of my problem is small child, work, and a bad habit of staying up watching recorded shows I can't catch when family duties call.

I just finished mt Masters a few months back so I've been through the ringer too. Just appreciate the stress relief of working out and take more care to sleep and power nap if possible.

Richard Cranium

Huh? What's the deal with Creatine and sleep?

If your schedule is screwing your ability to get enough sleep why are you asking about Creatine? I don't get it.

pigou

Perhaps. Its been a while since I've taken creatine so I'm blanking on what my speculation was, but basically it was a good sleep substitute, solely with respect to working out. If I was pretty tired but not on a creatine cycle then working out was pointless. If I was tired but on a cycle then I would still have a productive work out.