Dallas Seavey is one of the most hardcore mushers on the trail. He has proven his determination and stamina through multiple incredible race results, including his four Iditarod titles between 2012 and 2016. Dallas is famous for his extreme methods of preparing himself for the toughest mushing races on the planet, and for his ability to push his body beyond its boundaries. We sat him down to get his take on sleep deprivation during mushing races.

An Hour a Day Keeps the Doctor Away? 

In a race like Iditarod, how many hours do you sleep in average per day, and divided into how many periods?

“I generally get between one and two hours of sleep per day on long distance races. The one exception would be on the longer mandatory breaks where, if things are going well, I may get up to 7 hours of sleep at one time. One year on the Iditarod I got a total of 17 hours of sleep during the entire race making an average of two hours per day including the mandatory stops.”

Dallas is known for his unconventional methods. In training, in racing, on nutrition – and with sleep. Well, it is actually his demanding and race-specific training methods that are very well suited for preparing him for coping with sleep deprivation. He does a lot of simulated race training, staying on the trail for three to five days at a time, applying the same routines as in The Finnmark Race and Iditarod.

In the beginning of the training season, he gets exhausted and unconcentrated from sleep deprivation already after one single sleepless night. By the end of the year, going four consecutive nights without sleep is not a problem. As everything else, coping with sleep deprivation can be trained. Additionally, mastering mushing specific tasks in a sleep deprived state becomes his new “normal” after an entire winter of training.

Micro Sleeps are Key

In order to minimize the negative effects of sleep deprivation during a race, Dallas keeps three main focuses in mind; foods, drinks and micro sleeps. Even though many people don’t feel hungry when deprived of sleep, it is important to keep eating and fuel the body with energy. The body is running 24 hours a day in extreme conditions over a long period of time, and requires a proper caloric intake to be able to perform.

Dallas sees hydration as one of the absolute most effective measures to combat sleep deprivation. Although hydrating heavily in freezing temperatures can be very challenging, as most liquid freeze to ice almost instantly. Micro sleeps also helps Seavey to be able to perform well day after day, even when being extremely low on sleep.

“I make a point of doing something of a controlled ‘doze’ during the early hours of the morning on most races. When my body is really struggling between 3am and 6am I try to spend about 1 hour sitting on my sled seat with my body completely relaxed. I hang my head and close my eyes for about a ten count, then opening my eyes and looking up and down the length of the running team to make sure all is well with the dogs, then back to hanging my head and closing my eyes for another ten count. Doing this for just one hour per night seems to make a really big difference in my cognitive abilities late in the race.”

  Affecting Heart, Brain and Body

Dallas Seavey has built up quite some experience in dealing with the lack of sleep. In his opinion, sleep deprivation manifests itself by affecting three main functions of the body.

“Mental, emotional, and physical. Let’s start with mental. When you are severely sleep deprived even the easiest cognitive process seems like a monumental task. A musher in a race setting is making thousands of decisions and calculations as well as coming up with countless creative solutions for unforeseen problems. With each passing day of the race these decisions get harder and harder. The most common time that I notice it is when I am doing simple math like figuring out when I will arrive at the next checkpoint, or if I will be leaving the next rest during the heat of the day. The thoughts often go something like this: “OK, I got here at 13:15. I was going to stay 4:00, but it was a tough run to get here so I am going to make it a 4:20. That means I need to pull the hook at 17:35. I’m going to need 45 minutes from when my alarm goes off until I am on the road again so I will set my alarm for 16:50. The next run is 54 miles and we have been holding steady at a moving average of 8.7mph so that run is going to take me about 6:15. That means I should be arriving at my next stop at about 23:50. Another 4 hour stop puts me back on the trail at 03:50 tomorrow morning. That’s a good time to be hitting the trail so we are all good.” It’s not all that difficult for a rested mind, but when you’re on day 7 or 8 of the Iditarod that could be ten minutes of standing there, and not sleeping, deciding what time you should set your alarm for.” 

“Sleep deprivation has a huge effect on your emotions. Problems that would be a minor hiccup in a mushers normal life seem like impossible tasks when they haven’t slept for the last week. I have seen many mushers through in the towel because their sled is broken, or some other simple fix. Personally this is when I step out of my body and look at myself from the outside. In this way I can decide what needs to be done with some amount of disconnection from the fact that I am the one that is actually going to have to do whatever I decide. Additionally, I have to be VERY selective about the audio books I download before the race. When I am exhausted, even simple acts of kindness in a story that I am listening to will make me tear up. That’s when I step out of my body and say “damn, you’re a wreck! You better be really careful about making a gut decision because “It FEELS like the right thing to do””. The trick is to know WHEN your gut is trustworthy and when it’s the sleep derivation talking.”

“Physically, a mushers body on the Iditarod is going through hell. Under normal circumstances you would do a tremendous amount of recovery every night while your body rests, but on the Iditarod that rest never comes. So, you add one brutal day of  physical effort to the next and pretty soon you have compiled over 200 hours of hard labor without ever letting your body do the rebuilding it so desperately needs.”  

Sharing The Tricks of the Trade

What are your three best tips for newcomers in the sport regarding sleep deprivation?

“Train for it! By doing countless training series under the same sleep deprivation conditions you’ll face on the race your body will become better at handling the lack of sleep. You will also learn how to handle the discomfort of being tired and have the confidence of knowing the feeling and knowing you can handle it. 

Learn yourself. This kind of goes with the previous point, but it’s important enough to be it’s own. Everyone handles sleep deprivation a little differently and you need to know how you will react. Are you the type that becomes hyper pessimistic, or the type that gets giggly and lackadaisical? Are you going to look at the team and because you’re tired miss a problem that you should address, or are you going to fixate on the only problem until you have convinced yourself that everything is a problem? Only putting yourself in those situations and carefully observing yourself will answer those questions.

Eat and drink! Food and water are your friends here. The last thing you want is to make life even harder for your body by doing tough physical tasks without adequate calories on board or being dehydrated.”

The Agony of Sleeplessness

Dallas does not really believe in overloading sleep reserves before a race to be able to gather from these reserves throughout the race. He makes sure he is fully rested when he leaves the starting point of the race, and stays focused on resting when possible already from the beginning. His ability to perform in a sleep deprived state is one of the key factors to his success over the past years. The final phase of the extreme long-distance races is when the dogs really needs the musher to make the right decisions. Making right decision towards the later stages of a race can replace tons of bad ones done in the early stages or during preparations. 

What is the worst thing about being low on sleep during a race?

“It’s painful! When I wake up from a 15 minute nap on day eight of the Iditarod it is truly agonizing! On the up side, this is what I love about the Iditarod. It’s one of the few times that you actually drive yourself far enough down to truly test yourself. I feel like I have paid a hell of a lot of dues to get this opportunity, to be this tired and beaten down and now I get to see what I am made of. Now is the time to double down, pour myself in to each single step, and prove to myself what I am made of.”

In the meantime, Dallas enjoys his 7.5 hours of daily sleep while waiting for the upcoming season to kick-off. He has Iditarod as the main event on his calendar for 2021, and can’t wait to be back toeing the line in the most iconic mushing race on the planet. 

“Let’s Go!”