How to get tired and sleep
Sleep is a mystery as I get older. I can’t take it for granted. Every night as I turn off my reading light, a question goes through my mind: Will I sleep well, or will I lie awake in an eternity of silent darkness?
I know I’m not alone in experiencing unpredictable sleep. I’ve seen so many tips: a totally dark room, the correct temperature, refraining from alcohol and caffeine, and avoiding screens in the evening are some of them. But what works best for me to make sure I sleep is to make sure I’m tired. (Not exhausted from obligations and frustrations, but tired and sleepy.)
I can feel the difference between mental tiredness and physical tiredness. I feel mental tiredness behind my forehead and it’s hard to concentrate on a conversation or on reading. It can compel me to relax by scrolling Facebook for several minutes before I notice what I’m doing. Mental tiredness comes from practicing a skill, from doing tasks I don’t enjoy, or from talking about topics that spark intense emotion. It sometimes makes me sleep well, but not reliably.
My favorite way to sleep well is to get physically tired from exercise. It has to be hard. Just plain going for a walk won’t do it, even if my feet start to ache. So instead I go for walks with weights in a backpack — referred to as rucking. Friends from a local gym put me onto this habit during the pandemic, with weekly Sunday morning meet-ups to ruck through the neighborhood. I went with them three or four times. I was so hooked by this simple challenge that I have continued by myself for a year now, at least four times a week.
I love rucking because:
It gets me outside for an hour.
It raises my heart rate without getting me all amped up like running would.
It fatigues my hip, leg, and back muscles noticeably but not painfully.
It exposes me to daylight and to Seattle’s bracing fresh air (which I think is part of what makes me tired).
It lets me enjoy music or a podcast on my new wireless earbuds.
It gives me a chance look at yards and gardens.
It doesn’t require me to drive.
It uses gear I already owned: a small backpack and some dumbbells.
How to ruck? Assuming that walking is safe for you and that you don’t have much joint pain, start with five or ten pounds. You can buy streamlined backpacks and weight plates for rucking, but they’re very expensive. Their benefit is to keep the weight very close against your body, where it’s safest and more comfortable. A normal small backpack with a waist and chest strap can work for this, too. Put a dumbbell or two in there, or some bottled water, or a bag of potting soil, a brick or two… whatever’s lying around.
Cinch the shoulder straps part way, fasten the waist strap and cinch it, tighten the shoulder straps some more, then fasten the chest strap and tighten it. The weight should feel like it’s sitting on your hips, and the chest strap should relieve some of the remaining stress on your shoulders.
Now go out and walk for 30 or 45 minutes, and see how you feel. I love the all-over fatigue I get from rucking. By doing this several times a week, I can walk for more than an hour (and enjoy it) with 20 or 25 pounds in the pack. I know I’ll be sleepy when it’s time to go to sleep, and if I wake up during the night, I’m relaxed enough that I don’t stay awake for long. And, because the range of motion of walking is not very great (unlike deep squats or lunges, say), I don’t get very sore.
Other hard exercise that also makes me sleep: squats or deadlifts combined with an overhead lift, or push-ups or pull-ups. I just need to lift heavy enough so that six or seven reps at a time takes a lot of effort. For me, this means squats and deadlifts a bit heavier than I weigh, using a barbell and plates, which we have in our garage. You can do the same lifts with dumbbells (handheld weights), but you’d have to do more reps to get tired — and doing more reps, at these exercises which have a large range of motion, is more likely to result in more-severe muscle soreness.
I’m grateful to my friends who got me into rucking! Their Facebook group indicates they still meet up every Sunday, and I’m not surprised, because in addition to being great, non-painful, safe exercise, it’s also a great way to socialize.
