We can go on for days talking about how important sleep is. The fact of the matter is that for many people getting quality sleep, let alone falling asleep in the first place, is much harder than we think. Exercise is great for a host of health benefits. So such as improving heart health with cardio and HIIT to improving overall strength with resistance training.
It’s been shown that exercise will also help with getting more sleep at night.
Here’s some very clear evidence of the magical sleeping aid!
First, understand that to invoke sleep, our body follows a nearly 24-hour cycle known as the “Circadian Rhythm”. Based on the different cues and signals, this rhythm knows when to tell you when it’s time to go to sleep. One way in doing so is by raising body temperature.
Through the Circadian Cycle, your body slowly increases in heat, reaching its highest temperature at night right before sleep. This, along with the lack of lights, signals the body to increase the sleep-inducing hormone “Melatonin”.
People struggling to sleep can use exercise as a way to actively increase body temperature in hopes to drive this signal. On top of that, a byproduct of burning more energy with exercise is raising levels of Adenine. That is another hormone responsible for making you feel tired and sleepy.
Another annoying thing that inevitably makes it harder to sleep is age! With age, the responses to sleep signals and the Circadian Cycle slows down.
Exercise can help with the Circadian Cycle and it does not discriminate with age. In fact, a six-month-long study of elderly individuals ticking in a resistance training program, not only saw a 38% improvement in sleep quality based on The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), but it even showed an awesome 52% increase in upper body strength.
In case basic exercise alone is not good enough as you grow older, another study showed that engaging in weight training, walking, and more social activities, improve sleep for older individuals.
For people that have the most trouble sleeping like people with chronic insomnia, exercise has undoubtedly been shown to improve sleep. A study showed that as little as one exercise session was able to not only help people suffering chronic insomnia sleep faster, but also sleep longer.
The exact reason why it’s not fully known, but possible reasons are:
- The link to body temperature and the Circadian Rhythm, as discussed before.
- Exercise can lower anxiety and depression symptoms, which is something that many with chronic insomnia suffer with as well.
As far as the type of exercise, it seems that any type of exercise will improve sleep. It has been proven that resistance training improves sleep as well as cardio.
The time you exercise matters too! When you exercise in the morning and especially outdoors, you’ll come in contact with more sunlight, which is a signal to the Circadian Cycle to increase wakefulness and lower sleep-inducing Melatonin levels. That means by working out early, you’ll feel more energetic throughout your day! Other studies have shown that you can also benefit from working out in the afternoon because at this time you’ll be at your strongest.
You might have heard that working out at night will make your sleep worse? But luckily that’s not true! A study from the Journal of Sleep Research found that 35 minutes of exercise, 2 hours before sleep, slightly increased heart rate during sleep, but it had no effect on sleep quality. In fact, exercise at night might help you sleep better by first raising your core body temperature and then quickly cooling you down, which is something that happens when you sleep.
So choose the time to work out that is best for you!
In the end, exercising at any time will be better than not exercising at all! With 40% of the population having sleep troubles, finding out ways to improve sleep is extremely important!
Based on that, exercise seems like the answer! So head to the gym, the park, dance class, the garage, wherever you might be working out, and go get your best sleep!
Have you had problems with falling asleep or insomnia? Share your experience with us in the comments below!