4 Reasons Exercise Leads to Better Sleep
Many people say they never truly realized just how much they appreciate a good night’s sleep until they started working nights.
Because their work hours force them to have to sleep during the daytime and disrupt their circadian rhythm, night shift workers often experience sleep deprivation or sleep disorders like insomnia.
If you have been having trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or getting enough sleep each morning, you know just how frustrating sleep deprivation can be. Fortunately, there are ways to help combat sleep disorders and improve your quality of sleep, even while continuing to work nights.
One of the easiest and most effective ways to improve your sleep is through exercise. Not only will daily exercise help you fight night shift weight gain, but it will also help you to get quality sleep at night. If you are struggling with the amount or quality of sleep you get each morning, the first thing you should do is turn to exercise.
Exercise and sleep
While the two might not seem closely related, exercise and sleep have a direct and bidirectional relationship with one another. When you get a good amount of exercise, you will improve your sleep quality. When you get more sleep, you will be rested enough to get the physical activity you need to improve your sleep. In this way, sleep and exercise form a virtuous cycle where one benefits from the other.
This cycle also means that when you do not get enough exercise, it will have negative effects on your sleep and vice versa.
According to a Sleep in America poll, more than ¾ of survey respondents reported having good or fairly good sleep quality when they engage in light, moderate, or vigorous exercise. Sleep and exercise are strongly correlated, and as a night shift worker, it is important for you to understand this relationship.
Here are a few ways that exercising leads to better sleep:
- Daily exercise reduces the amount of time it takes for people to fall asleep. Instead of tossing and turning at night or staring at your ceiling for hours wishing you could fall asleep, you will be able to fall asleep quickly when you are finished with your shift.
- Daily exercise lowers the risk for health factors that influence sleep. Sleep apnea causes many people to experience sleep interruptions and difficulty breathing while they are trying to rest. Exercising daily reduces the risk for obesity and other health factors that contribute to sleep apnea, which will make it easier for you to stay asleep without any disruptions once you fall asleep.
- Daily exercise helps reinforce positive habits. If you can maintain an exercise routine every day, it will be much easier for you to maintain other positive habits like a healthy sleep routine. This positive habit will help your body get used to the time you need to fall asleep each day.
- Daily exercise lowers stress levels. When you are stressed, it is hard for your mind to slow down anxious thoughts and help your body fall asleep. High levels of stress also cause tension in the body which can influence sleep. When you engage in physical activity, you will be able to lower your stress levels, which will help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.
While it is important to exercise regularly in order to improve your physical, mental, and sleep health, you should be mindful of the amount of exercise you receive and the times when you complete this exercise in order to prevent your physical activity from having the opposite effect.
Experts do not recommend that any individual engage in high-intensity exercise right before they plan to go to bed. High-intensity exercise will increase your alertness and trigger endorphins that make it harder for your body to settle down to go to sleep. Exercise also raises your core body temperature, which will influence your circadian rhythm and signal to your body that it is time to be awake. As such, you should always aim to complete your exercise at least 2 hours before you plan on going to bed for the day.
It’s also critical that you are getting enough exercise to influence your sleep. If you are exercising at least 30 minutes a day, you can start to see the effects of your sleep changes right away. There is no need to completely exhaust your energy in order to improve your sleep. Even 30 minutes of moderate exercise can make a difference.
With the proper amount of exercise completed at an appropriate time, you can make significant improvements to your quality of sleep and your quality of life.
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