Sleep is important and it affects you and your body immensely. Not getting enough sleep, or sleeping badly influences your whole day. You wake up feeling groggy, you don’t have energy to start the day, you feel tired during the whole day and can’t be productive. Sleeping well is easier said than done. You might have a busy lifestyle, work a lot of hours, or have children to take care of, and we understand. However, we have some good news. Regular exercise and an active lifestyle can help you sleep better, and for longer, among other things! Let’s go through all the ways that exercise can improve your sleep:
Reduce sleep onset
Daily exercise and movement can extend your sleep time. Even moderate exercise, and light to moderate daily movement, can help. Not every day needs to be a gym day, all you need is light movement, and exercise that will help release the good chemicals, called endorphins. Exercise can increase sleep quality for adults by reducing sleep onset – or the time it takes to fall asleep – and decrease the amount of time they lie awake in bed during the night.
Improved quality of sleep
Exercise can also improve the overall quality of sleep. A research on Exercise Training affecting sleep quality, found that HIIT improved all accelerometer parameters, with higher total sleep time and sleep efficiency, and lower wake after sleep onset. This means that not only aerobics, yoga and similar lower intensity exercises, but also higher intensity exercises such as HIIT, which takes more of your energy, will also help you sleep better.
Helps reduce daytime sleepiness
Feeling fatigued and tired during the day is common among adults. But, there is also a medical condition concerning this problem, and its called hypersomnia. Hypersomnia can cause you to fall asleep in inappropriate times, even if you take multiple naps a day, and still make you feel like you lack sleep. Even so, research has shown that exercise reduces daytime sleepiness indeed, and that it can help manage hypersomnia.
Helps with relieving symptoms of sleep disorders
Sleep disorders are difficult to manage, and physical exercise alone is not enough to relieve you from them, but it does help with the symptoms. Research has shown that both acute bouts of physical activity and regular physical activity improve a variety of sleep outcomes in healthy adults, with the effects typically small to moderate in magnitude. The same research concluded that physical exercise may relieve some symptoms of sleep disorders such as insomnia and sleep apnea.
Improve your sleep-wake cycle
Your body has several internal clocks, called circadian clocks. These typically follow a 24-hour repeating rhythm, called the circadian rhythm. During these 24 hours, the body changes its internal temperature, which affects your sleep-wake cycle. When you exercise, your bodily temperature rises, which signals your body to stay awake. This is why it’s usually recommended that you don’t exercise at night. Some doctors may even recommend that you exercise 8 hours prior to sleeping, especially if you have a sleeping disorder. A review by Nature, suggests timing your exercise to maximize its benefits. They state that exercise can reset the molecular circadian clock, thereby effectively ameliorating the negative effects of disrupted sleep patterns.
SUMMARY
Regular physical exercise, no matter if its low intensity or high intensity, can help with almost every aspect of sleep. Research has shown that regular exercise can help improve the duration and quality of sleep. It can also help to reduce sleep onset, reduce daytime sleepiness, improve the sleep-wake cycle, and help with reducing symptoms of sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, insomnia, and hypersomnia.
