Night sailing: Sleep well on the high seas - the best tips from the pros
Kristina Müller
· 03.11.2023
In this article:
I quickly make a thermos flask of tea and then I'm ready. I'm already sitting in the deckhouse, one hand on the steering wheel, a mug of tea in the other. The little Bluetooth soundbox carries me away into the world of the muse while my eyes scan the horizon. It's ten o'clock in the evening on board. My watch for the third night at sea has just begun. And it looks good. Once again, the Baltic Sea whispers with its calm ebb and flow, promising to carry us gently through the night."
Claudia Kirchberger's report on her summer cruise from the German Baltic coast to the Åland Islands begins with this hymn to night sailing. 400 nautical miles in one go, which means sailing for several days and nights. Not too much of a challenge for Claudia Kirchberger and her husband Jürgen, a cruising couple with tens of thousands of nautical miles in their wake - quite the opposite: "We love night sailing. It's the best thing!" says Jürgen Kirchberger.
The two are able to enjoy the dark hours at sea mainly because they have developed a system that keeps them fit through the night: Everyone gets enough sleep so that the small crew can take turns regenerating and thus maintain their strength.
Everyone can sleep as they please
This is not a matter of course. Newcomers at sea in particular regularly have problems sleeping during their free watch. So how can this be learnt? How do cruising and regatta sailors find enough rest to replenish their depleted batteries? Which aids and techniques are useful for this, and which are more of a hindrance?
"We used to have the classic four-hour watch, because that's how it was done 20 years ago," says Jürgen Kirchberger. "But the issue kept us busy until we found a solution for ourselves." The two Austrians now organise their night watches according to their individual preferences. He, for example, is good at going to bed early and getting up early. On night trips, he therefore goes to bed between nine and ten in the evening.
His wife, on the other hand, being an "owl", has no problem staying up late and sleeping late the other day instead, so she only wakes him up after at least six hours. Sometimes even after seven. Always provided that she feels fit enough and the weather is calm. She then goes to sleep for six to seven hours, until late morning. During the day, the Kirchbergers then operate an open wake-up system in which everyone goes to bed for two to three hours.
Recovery is greater after six hours of sleep
The long nightly breaks have proved their worth. In her experience, with three to four hours of free waking, there is not enough time to get into the deep sleep phase. "At the beginning, you're often still a bit heated up from working on the sails and your pulse is still high. It takes a while for everything to calm down and for you to fall asleep," says Jürgen Kirchberger. And he adds: "With six hours of sleep in a row, we realise that we are more rested and have more energy.
According to research, deep sleep can also occur during significantly shorter sleep intervals (see interview). Nevertheless, many long-distance sailors opt for a rhythm similar to Kirchberger's.
Good planning for restful sleep
Take Lennart Burke, for example, who as a 20-year-old sailed across the Atlantic in both directions on an old cruising boat with a friend. Burke: "I always went to bed at 8 pm and was off until 2 am. From two to three there was a change of watch. We had a cup of tea together and talked about what had happened in the meantime." For Kirchbergers, too, this handover is a crucial prerequisite for a restful night's sleep. Above all, however, it is the foresighted planning.
Before Jürgen Kirchberger is the first to disappear into his bunk, they check the current weather forecast for the night and look at the intended course. Is a front or fog approaching? Will they have to cross a shipping lane? They make plans for this and more and, if in doubt, reef in advance, even if it costs them a bit of speed. "All Claudia has to do is keep an eye on the course and trim the boat. She doesn't have to wake me up to reef," explains Jürgen Kirchberger.
Important: Quiet on board and little rolling
The knowledge that his wife is not in danger of falling overboard at night helps him to fall asleep and stay asleep, as she does not usually need to leave the wheelhouse of their robust steel yacht. "On our old boat with an open cockpit, we always had that worry." Now they have an agreement that nobody goes out alone or even to the bow to work on the sail. Especially not in strong winds or storms.
Rather, the person on watch ensures calm on board. If harnesses rattle in the locker because waves are tossing the boat to and fro or sails are flapping in a calm, this is stopped as quickly as possible. Jürgen Kirchberger also advises changing course so that the boat does not roll. "We prefer to cross in front of the wind and bring some position into the boat." The increase in speed always makes up for the diversions - and you can sleep better.
On upwind courses, they drop a little to reduce pitching. "You have to make compromises and sometimes even cut a few miles for comfort on board." Course corrections are certainly more sensible for trips lasting several days than for short distances, during which you don't sleep well anyway. It takes four to five days to get into the rhythm. "But," says Kirchberger, "after all, we are long-distance sailors and not regatta sailors."
You have to make compromises and sometimes rack up the miles for comfort on board"
Two-hour watches in regatta mode
Lennart Burke knows both worlds. After crossing the Atlantic in cruising mode, he sailed single-handed across the ocean in the Mini-Transat. He is now active in offshore regatta sailing in double-handed mode with Melwin Fink.
On their Class 40, the watches in races last a maximum of two hours. They have not based this rhythm on sleeping, but on being awake. "In regatta mode, you're working flat out. Steering, trimming, looking out, navigating - you can't do that for more than two hours," says Burke. After an hour and a half, you gradually become inattentive.
The Stralsund native learnt the hard way in his first year of single-handed mini regattas. "I always went to bed at the wrong time. I thought I had to stay awake for the first 30 to 35 hours and go full throttle to stay ahead of the field." He didn't sleep at all during the first two nights of the Azores race. "At the end of the second night at around five in the morning, there was a lull in which I had to steer because the autopilot wasn't working. I dozed off at the tiller. My boat went round in circles for two hours - scary."
Lack of sleep can lead to hallucinations
Burke's first experience of hallucinations due to lack of power is during the qualification race, in which each Transat aspirant sails 1,000 miles solo. He needs seven days. During the last ten hours, when he doesn't want to take his foot off the accelerator, it happens: imagination and reality become blurred.
The following year, the up-and-coming sailor sometimes lies down shortly after a regatta start, even if the field is still sailing close together. "That was dangerous. But single-handed sailing is far removed from any kind of seamanship anyway. You don't have to sugarcoat it," says Burke.
At the beginning of his mini-career, he sought contact with a renowned sleep researcher. However, he now relies more on his own experience than on the advice of a coach. "For me, training is practice! Get out there and try it out!"
Sleep for at least 45 minutes or a maximum of 15 minutes
Michael Guggenberger also sought expert advice on sleeping before his mammoth single-handed trip. From April to September 2023, the Austrian sailed solo around the world in the Golden Globe Race. After 249 days and nights, he finished in third place.
The result of his discussions with a doctor and a neurologist: either sleep for at least 45 minutes or less than 15 minutes. That's what you need to get into the deep sleep phase. "If you pull yourself out of it before then, you haven't really fuelled up - but you haven't lost any energy either," says Guggenberger. At sea, however, the short power nap typical of single-handed sailors was the exception rather than the rule. Instead, the 46-year-old tried to maintain his biorhythm from life on land: being active during the day and at least resting at night.
The key is to fall asleep quickly"
"I lived with the sun," says Guggenberger. Sunset was the end of the day for him. He would lie down between ten and eleven in the evening and then drink his first coffee at sunrise. He ate during the day and not much at night. He reefed the sails before dark and went back to his bunk when there was nothing to do at night. His conclusion: "I think the key is to practise falling asleep quickly. And to go back to sleep quickly if you do wake up in between."
Lee board instead of lee sail
But how do you manage this despite the water rushing against the hull, the wave rodeo and the worry of a collision or the next front? "It's a purely mental thing," says Michael Guggenberger. You have to trust yourself, the boat and the weather information so that your thoughts don't circle around in your head. Sailing solo makes it easier, "because you're always tired anyway!"
However, the Austrian's real recipe for success was his bunk. To ensure that his body could lie relaxed even in heavy seas, he implemented a tip from his neurologist: Instead of a leeward sail, he attached a leeboard in front of a saloon bench, in which he lay "like in a box". Secured with cushions, which he stuffed to the right and left of him, his body could hardly move despite the waves and therefore hardly expend any energy. He even fitted straps with Velcro fasteners.
"This bunk was one of the best ideas I had," summarises the circumnavigator. On the way, he also airs the bed linen every day and puts up the damp bunk cushions. In the event that everything gets completely soaked, spare bedding and cushions are kept on board in large plastic bags.
Sleep fore or aft?
Mandy Entken and Alexander Arnold experienced just how important the right place to sleep at sea is during their Atlantic crossing. The noise of the waves and engine made both the aft and forward cabins on their Beneteau Oceanis a rather unpopular place to sleep. However, Mandy Entken doesn't use earplugs, as Jürgen Kirchberger sometimes does, for the same reasons as Lennart Burke: they don't want to block out anything, they want to hear the ship and its noises. "Only once, when it was really loud, did I use noise-cancelling headphones. But you can only lie on your back with them," reports Entken.
There was another challenge on board their "Blue": son Levi was only six months old at the time of the tour. In order to ensure sufficient sleep and enough hands on board, the couple took a friend with them and relied on a rotating wake system with four hours during the day and three hours at night. Nevertheless: "A proper rhythm is difficult with a small child. Alex often took over when I had to breastfeed or change nappies," says Entken.
At least none of them suffered from jet lag when they arrived in the Caribbean: the clocks were adjusted to the new time zone every six to seven days.
There is no magic formula for sleeping on board
There is therefore no patent remedy for a good night's sleep on board. "Many people still want to hear it from me," says Lennart Burke. Instead of reading books on the subject and worrying too much, he advises people to spend time on the water and practise sleeping, even if only for a quarter of an hour at first.
After all, it's like so many other things in sailing: The more experience you gain, the better it works at some point.
Sleep better on board and at sea: tips for the bunk
Tips for falling asleep quickly
- Select a berth in the quietest position on the ship
- Maintain sleep routines from home, e.g. putting on pyjamas, brushing teeth
- Ensure darkness in the bunk, with a sleeping mask if necessary
- Using the red light in the cabin
- Activate blue light filter on smartphone
- Switch off noise and rattling noises in the boat if possible
- Learn and try out breathing techniques or autogenic training
- Test: Do podcasts, audio books or music help you fall asleep?
- Do not eat heavily before going to bed
- At anchor: use shock absorbers, anchor alarm and anchor watch if necessary
- Absolutely impossible to sleep: lie down and rest anyway
