The Positives and Negatives to Exercising and your Sleep Patterns
By Jane Kupkowski
Camp Zama Fitness Coordinator

Exercising vigorously right before or within about three hours of your bedtime can actually make it harder to fall asleep.

This surprises many people; it is often thought that a good workout before bed helps you feel more tired. In actuality, vigorous exercise right before bed stimulates your heart, brain and muscles, leaving your nervous system at a higher level and unable to relax into a catabolic state.

Exercise raises your body temperature right before bed, which, you’ll soon discover, is not what you want.

Morning exercise can relieve stress, improve mood and keep your energy throughout the day without needing that morning caffeine fix to keep you awake.

These effects can indirectly improve sleep, no doubt.

To get a more direct sleep-promoting benefit from morning exercise, however, you can couple it with exposure to outdoor light.

Being exposed to natural light in the morning, whether you’re exercising or not, can improve your sleep at night by reinforcing your body’s sleep-wake cycle.

When it comes to having a direct effect on getting a good night’s sleep, it’s vigorous exercise in the late afternoon or early evening that appears most beneficial.

That’s because it raises your body temperature above normal a few hours before bed, allowing it to start falling just as you’re getting ready to go to sleep.

This decrease in body temperature appears to be a trigger that helps ease you into sleep.
The most vigorous type of workout is a cardiovascular workout, such as running, walking and biking.

That means you engage in some activity in which you keep your heart rate up and your blood circulating through your musculoskeletal system for at least 25 minutes.

Although strength-training, stretching, yoga and other methods of exercise are beneficial, none match the sleep-enhancing benefits of cardiovascular exercise.

So next time you want to get a great night’s sleep, either wake up and enjoy the sunshine in the morning or take a nice walk on your lunch break to get your sleep pattern back to its normal routine.