Can Exercise Help You Sleep?
As Daylight Savings is here, I think it’s an important time to talk about sleep.
Research has shown that sleep deprivation is associated with mental health issues like depression and anxiety.
When I was dealing with severe bouts of depression, I had insomnia. I would end up in bed around 9 PM and wouldn’t go to sleep until midnight. Afterward, I would wake up around 3 AM and have difficulty going back to sleep.
I learned later that this was a result of having depression.
It was not until I started exercising that my insomnia went away.
Exercise helped me, and it might have the potential to help you.
So we are going to cover exercise and how it may improve your quality of sleep.
Let’s get after it.
Exercise, Insomnia, and Sleep Quality
As we alluded to earlier, there is a connection between poor exercise, insomnia, and sleep deprivation. This is especially noted in those who are dealing with depression and anxiety.
According to a 2010 study, those with insomnia that participated in 4 days of aerobic exercise reported better quality of sleep.
If we want to get more specific, moderate-intensity exercise, in general, has been shown to reduce insomnia related to anxiety.
This means that this can also be applied to anaerobic exercises like weight lifting. In fact, a study noted that anaerobic exercise might possibly be a better option for improved sleep quality (compared to aerobic exercise).
Regardless, whatever it is that you do, ensure that it is a moderate-intensity exercise that gets your body moving and your heart elevated.
Recommendations
We wanted to conclude this post with a few recommendations from us:
- Moderate-intensity exercise is key. These types of exercise consist of lifting weights, running, swimming, bike riding, and more. Anything that gets you moving fast or strenuously. Something slightly challenging.
- Participate in over 3 days of exercise weekly. According to a sleep in America poll, those who exercised over three times per week reported better sleep quality than those who exercised less.
- These exercise sessions should be 45–60 minutes. Over three hours of exercise is associated with improvements in mental health. We believe this is also correlated to better sleep quality.
- Schedule your exercise regularly. If you find yourself energized after exercise, maybe do it in the morning. If you find yourself tired after exercise, do it in the evening.
You’ll notice that majority of the recommendations we’ve given in this post are similar to those in our exercise for depression post.
This is because consistent exercise and proper sleep are associated with better overall mental health.
We also talk about the importance of exercise, nutrition, and sleep in our eBook series which you can download for free here.
Now with that being said, thank you for reading!
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to throw them below!
Until next time, Reforged Warrior!
