Regular exercise plays a huge role in good quality sleep and most health experts would testify to this. Sleep doesn’t come easy for many people, especially those suffering from underlying issues like stress or anxiety.
Setting up a routine is crucial for good sleep and overall better health in general. Today SleepCosee will tell you how you can exercise for better sleep - because yes, not just how much, but at what time you exercise also affects the quality of your sleep.
Although everyone agrees on the importance of exercising for quality sleep, many misconceptions about the time of exercising are prevalent. So, let’s find out the facts and work around them!
Best time to exercise for better sleep
Most of the things come down to one simple fact: you can workout whenever you want, only if you keep a few rules in mind. There is no such thing as a ‘bad time of the day for exercise’ - there’s only a bad routine.
If you are not a morning person, you can easily work out during the afternoon and/or night as well as long as you keep a few things in mind. Just how there are certain rules for even morning workouts, there are a few things for afternoon and night too if you plan to exercise for better sleep.
Most of the time, it’s about choosing the right kind of exercise for the right time of the day and in the right amount of intensity.
Circadian rhythm, exercise, and sleep
Although it is quite true that exercising at different times of day affects the body in a different way, it doesn’t necessarily have to be bad for your sleep. While morning exercise does improve the circadian rhythm, evening or night exercise doesn’t necessarily cause a problem.
For example, a morning person can workout during the early hours near dawn and stimulate melatonin release earlier in their bodies. This, in turn, will help them sleep earlier, wake up the next day earlier and so goes on with life - in a perfect rhythm. The night-time exercise, though, will be bad for these early birds.
But what about those who stay up till late at night? Studies have found that night owls can easily follow a night-time exercise for better sleep.
As long as they have a moderate exercise session at least 90 minutes before they go to sleep, exercise doesn’t cause an issue for most people - especially not the night owls. In fact, exercising a moderate way might even promote healthy and restorative deep sleep.
How to exercise for better sleep?
While the time of the day to exercise for better sleep might not be important, the kind of exercise you do does matter. Most of the time, high-intensity exercise during the afternoon or evening helps promote better sleep.
The release of orexin, a neurotransmitter that increases wakefulness during nighttime, is controlled when exercised moderately during the evening time. So if you are someone who finds himself/herself waking up in the middle of the night frequently, you should do some moderate evening exercise for better sleep and decreased midnight wakefulness.
For those who can manage or like exercises during nighttime, you should go for more relaxing exercises like yoga, stretching, meditation, or a nice slow-paced walk even. Most nighttime exercises must be gentler in order to promote good sleep.
Other tips for better sleep
Make sure you take light dinner during the nighttime - a heavy meal late at night often inhibits better sleep because your body goes in work-mode trying to digest whatever you have eaten. Light and easily digestible dinner and supper help promote good sleep.
Block sounds that might frustrate, or distract you - sometimes even the loud ticking of the clock can cause a problem for those who suffer from sleep anxiety and any such issues. It’s important you use earplugs or optimize your room to resist disruptive noises.
Prepare a comfortable bed to sleep soundly - many people aren’t able to sleep peacefully due to back pain or neck pain just because their mattress or pillows weren’t good enough. If you suffer from neck pain, make sure you have speciality pillows - you can also check out SleepCosee Speciality Pillows for healthy sleep.
Optimizing the temperature in your room is another important issue - if you’re shivering from cold or writhing from heat, you can’t really sleep then. Put away your electronics and go to bed on a routine time every day.
Hopefully, this helped you and now you can easily exercise for better sleep at night and fresh beginning in the mornings!