43, 12 weeks in, and sleep went backwards

2026-08-22 18:04

Hi everyone — I've been reading here since January and finally working up the nerve to post. I'm 43, sit at a desk all day, used to run a lot in my twenties and got back into it this spring.

Twelve weeks now of three gym days plus a couple of easy runs, and the scale finally moved — down about 6 pounds, jeans fit better, and my resting heart rate has dropped more than I expected. The confusing part is sleep: I keep waking up around 4am and my watch says my sleep has actually gotten worse, which feels completely backwards.

Did this happen to anyone else when they ramped up, and did it settle down on its own?

2026-08-22 19:36

The 4am wakeups plus lower RHR scream accumulated fatigue to me. Did your easy runs get faster without you noticing?

2026-08-22 20:29

Mine did. I was chasing pace on easy days and sleep went sideways. Slowed down and it evened out in about 10 days.

2026-08-22 22:43

Not so sure. My RHR fell 11 bpm and sleep score dropped for three weeks before rebounding. Sometimes the body just lags.

2026-08-23 04:04

What’s your room temp? My sleep score tanks above 68F, especially when cardio volume goes up.

2026-08-23 10:05

Cooling pad was the only thing that helped me.

2026-08-23 12:41

The watch can mess with u too. My old band read low HR when I tossed, so sleep score looked awful.

2026-08-24 02:00

Not the watch for me. Ring and watch agree. I’d look at weekly hard days.

2026-08-24 11:46

How many lower-body sessions are you doing? Three lifts plus two runs sounds fine until both leg days are heavy.

2026-08-25 01:14

44 here, and my tracker's curve looks almost identical: RHR 70 down to 61, sleep score 78 to 69. Then week 14 it swung right back for no clear reason.

2026-08-25 02:35

Under-eating did that to me. I had the same week-14 rebound, but only after I stopped the deficit.

2026-08-27 13:26

Under-eating is sneaky. I ran a six-week cut, dropped 5 lb, and my sleep score fell from 80 to 67. I thot it was overtraining, but my resting HR was lower too.

I took a two-week maintenance break, didn’t change training much, and sleep came back to 77. Not saying that’s your case, but if you’re down 6.4 lb and sleep is the main weird signal, it might be worth tracking intake alongside load. The 4am wakeups were the tell for me.

Did u change calories when u started the block, or were u already in a deficit?

2026-09-21 08:20

The March 27:40 gives you room. Are you running easy days by pace or HR?

2026-09-26 16:50

HR, honestly. Easy runs built around pace turn into tempo runs pretty much every time. Sleep got better once there was a cap in place.

2026-09-27 20:18

This thread is making me want to log RHR and sleep for a cut. Week 4 here, no dip yet, but I’m only walking and lifting.