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I feel like the key to my mental and physical health starts with quality sleep. When I don’t sleep well, things start to cascade, negatively:
I tend to eat more, eat later, and eat grab-and-go (read “less nutrition”) items because my fatigue gets my brain seeking a quick energy hit to get through the day.
I tend to work out poorly; the energy just isn’t there to really push progressive overload; I just can’t get the gains and put in the consistent effort over the course of a workout.
I find it harder to concentrate on anything that is at all mentally taxing; I have a harder time listening well and contextualizing whatever the heck I’m working on.
I’m generally more cranky and short-tempered; I find emotional regulation to require much more intentionality; it just doesn’t come as easily.
That’s not to say I’m just falling apart. I can function. I just don’t function well.
So, when I set up this thing, this hypoxic tent, that cuts my oxygen to lower levels, increases carbon dioxide levels, creates an environment that can be louder (due to the generator), and creates an environment that is too hot (due to reduced airflow and trapped body heat), I’m really stacking the deck against getting that quality sleep. All I need to do is spend my final waking hours each night staring at my phone after eating a late dinner, and I will have pretty much done all the things you can do to make your sleep poor.
Setting up the hypoxic tent, well, then becomes pretty important. By “well” I mean minimizing all the various issues I just described, to the extent possible, so that I get the best sleep possible given the constraints of still getting the acclimatization adaptations that I am seeking. Can I get the temperature in the tent to be reasonable? Can I cut down the noise? All that stuff.
And then there is the acclimatization progression, itself. Can i use data and correlate it to my physical sensations to inform when I can more to a higher simulated altitude and versus stay at the same altitude, or even move down?
And remember, during all of this, I am also trying to get more and more fit in order to physically train for the climb, too. I really don’t have any choice but to put in high-effort workouts and do more and more of that at the same time I am trying to sleep with less and less oxygen.
The video, then, is hopefully a bit of an inside look into the subtle things I think worked to help acclimatize while also not completely undermine my training and, frankly, just my general well being and ability to function.