I as well work 12 hr shifts 4-5 days a week in the medical field, dealing with stressful patients all day. When I get off I'm more mentally exhausted then physically, but when I hit the gym after its like a release of stress. I may get 4-5 hours max, I'm not a early morning guy, so I train at night. There are many times when I preformed on less sleep, I.e. the military.Then throw school,wife and family in that equation.haha. You just have to work with what you have, your body will adjust, 6 hrs isn't bad for gains. Get in there and get your swole on, team no sleep.

i dont think training with little sleep is detrimental on the workout itself per say, rather the actual recovery/repair process thats hurt the most by not enough sleep.

me personally, i dont function well at all without at least 7 hrs of sleep - i get all foggy you could say, mentally dull as shit and out of it. it messes with me bad at work if i stay up past 9pm (im a 29 yr old old ass man i know). when i try to train on little sleep almost every single time i fatigue incredibly quick, and my strength is not even close to what im capable of.

i suspect its a little different with everybody but i know both my gains (strength and size) suffer when i dont sleep as much at night, and my workouts are basically piss poor :( props to anybody that is able to go in and dominate on 4 hrs of sleep

Listen to your body. If you're up to it then go regardless of the clock hours of unconscious sleep. If you're dragging and popping motrin and/or caffeine to get through the day or to push your workout , you're sore, tired, then its probably counterproductive and you need to call it in and rest instead.

It's funny that you posted this yesterday.. on the way to the gym I fell asleep... Ab let me sleep for about 20 mins before saying babe.. let's do this.. It was awesome.. I got in a great workout and even hit come cardio to boot... naps I never get!!

Wooohaa! I thought I was the only "weirdo" that slept 4hrs a night... Nope, there are more of us out there. Good, I will sleep better tonight, or not... :-) In reply, keep doing what you are doing, without that, you might find you won't sleep very well at all anymore... Best of luck bro'

DrD

I work 12 hour days also but no matter what I always feel much better after I get a workout in. I usually get home about 6 pm and eat, take a nap for an hour or so and go hit about 9 or 9:30.
No matter what you're gonna get in better shape if you're in the gym more. I don't buy into that overtraining/not enough rest shit at all. The times I've always been in the best shape in my life are the times I make going to the gym my number 1 priority.
If you don't have to be at work until 9 there's nothing wrong with going to the gym at 11 pm. That would probably be less of a hassle than waking up at 5:30.
Having said all that there are days when I'm tired as fuck and I miss a workout and I always regret it and feel like shit all around. Going to the gym and getting the blood pumping always makes me feel better no matter how tired I am.

Here is where I think individual biorhythms play into effect. I sleep about on an average 5hrs a night tops. Usually it is about 4hrs. I have always been this way don't why just can't sleep longer. This was a great help through certain aspects of my military career for training. Going without sleep with a high tempo of PT was not uncommon. I am a strong believer that the body will lie to the mind about what it can and cannot do. On the other hand depending on a person's medical make up I don't believe there can be one blanket rule on this. If your job/task is more mental than physical generally speaking you are not physically tired at the end of a shift. It is more mental which can simulate physical exhaustion. If the job/task requires extreme physical effort that can dehydrate and drop blood sugar levels, then I would conclude you could be physically broken down at the end of it.

I hear ya bro I work 12-14hr shifts 5 days a week (in the respiratory field) and on call 3 of those 5, so some days are 16hr days. I just eat real clean to keep my energy up to compensate for lack of sleep. Eat a couple big quality meals like the man said below. Get a nap in whenever you can.

I've had some of my best workouts on little sleep...i dont understand how but i have.

My body doesn't allow me to sleep more than 5 hours. 6 if I'm lucky. Just never been much of a sleeper so if I just do what I gotta do to get my workout in early am. Gym to myself and a few others. I love it.

Rest is key but if your feeling good and can handle it then my opinion is your body is doing ok. Listen to it and change it up if you start hearing it say... "More Sleep Sherlock!" (lol I couldn't resist)

If I waited to train on days that I had more than four hours of sleep .... I wouldn't ever get to workout... sad but true! However, I do try to save the harder workouts for the weekends when I know I will get just a little bit more rest.

if that was my case i would probably just train body parts im lacking. such as calves or arms and possibly abs.