Does exercise help you sleep better?
Exercise has an enormous amount of benefit for our bodies. Studies show it helps us maintain our weight, normalize blood sugar, promote healthy organs, and more. But does it have an effect on our nightly sleep?
An article published by the National Library of Medicine compiled data from 58 different sources and summarized it in the article, ‘The Effect of Physical Activity on Sleep Quality and Sleep Disorder: A Systematic Review.’ One of the questions researchers set out to explore in the studies was the effect of physical activity on both overall sleep quality and on sleep disorders.
It was found physical activity can help promote good quality sleep in several ways. Firstly, it raises your body’s natural production of melatonin, which is a hormone responsible for regulating your wake-sleep cycle. Secondly, physical activity was found to naturally reduce stress. Stress can often disrupt the sleep cycle by making it hard to fall asleep at night—we all know the feeling of not being able to turn our brains off at night. Physical activity was also shown to generally boost one’s mood in a positive way. As an added bonus, physical activity also helps regulate body temperature, which is helpful when its time to hit the hay. To start receiving these benefits, it was found 30 minutes of exercise was needed.
For those with sleep disorders, including insomnia, sleep apnea, and restless leg syndrome, it was found during these studies 30 minutes of exercise 3 times a week for 8 weeks resulted in improved sleep quality. Another study confirmed this, because it showed insufficient physical activity was associated with poor sleep quality, less overall hours of sleep, and increased likelihood of taking sleep medications. What does all that mean? Getting moderate activity a few times a week is beneficial for good quality sleep!
What are two things to keep in mind about adding exercise to your daily routine for better sleep results? The time of day you are active and the length of your work out. The higher intensity and longer the work out, the further it should be spaced in your day from bedtime. In fact, super high intensity work outs have had the opposite effect, and actually disrupt your sleep cycle.
If you are adding in exercise, you need to have the right equipment. Check out our recommendations here and here and here.
Here is the article in its entirety.
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