The Effects of Exercise on Sleep and your Health
There are many reasons why a person might choose to exercise whether they are starting up for the first time or its part of their lifestyle. Lose weight? Tone up? Train for a sport or event? These are the answers you would expect to hear but exercise has further reaching benefits that are often overlooked, namely sleep quality and mental health.
25% of the UK population suffer some form of sleep disorder that results in excessive daytime sleepiness. There is plenty of medication out there but sleeping pills have adverse effects and are not recommended for long term use. So could exercise be a good alternative? According to scientific studies, yes. Participants in these studies reported greater quality of sleep compared to the control groups along with a reduction in sleep latency. Exercise was recommended as an alternative to other sleep disorder treatments such as hypnosis and medication. Although other behavioural/cognitive treatments are considered more affective for chronic insomnia they are more difficult and expensive to deliver.
A bit of science – “Sleep serves an energy conservation function, a body tissue restitution function, or a temperature down-regulation function. [exercise] no other stimulus elicits greater depletion of energy stores, tissue breakdown, or elevation of body temperature.”
Mixed anxiety and depression is the most common mental disorder in Britain with depression affecting 1 in 4 of us over the course of a year. Depression is caused by an array of biopsychosocial and lifestyle factors. Exercise along with diet can play a role in treating the condition. But guess what? So can sleep, so exercise can play a dual role in treating depression by helping directly and indirectly by improving sleep quality.
But the evidence is not necessarily conclusive, although exercise shows an increase in stage 2 and slow wave sleep some studies have shown a reduction in REM sleep duration and a delay on reaching a REM sleep cycle. One study went as far to say “Exercise is widely believed to have large effects on sleep. However, the scientific evidence does not strongly support this common belief.”
I for once can notice a significant difference in my sleep quality and how long it takes me to fall asleep when I am exercising regularly and I’m sure casual gym goers and athletes alike would say the same.
Christian
References
BBC. (2014). A hard night’s sleep. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/articles/sleepdisorders.shtml
Lopresti AL, Hood SD, Drummond PD. (2013). A review of lifestyle factors that contribute to important pathways associated with major depression: diet, sleep and exercise. Journal of Affective Disorders. School of Psychology. Murdoch University.
Yang PY, Ho KH, Chen HC, Chien MY. (2012). Exercise training improves sleep quality in middle-aged and older adults with sleep problems: a systematic review. Journal of Physiotherapy. College of Medicine. National Taiwan University.
Norman J. (2005). Effects of exercise on sleep. Clinics in Sports Medicine. Department of Exercise Science. Arnold School of Public Health. University of South Carolina.
Montgomery P, Dennis J. (2002). Physical exercise for sleep problems in adults aged 60+. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews. The University of Oxford Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
O’Connor PJ, Youngstedt SD. (1995). Influence of exercise on human sleep. Exercise and sport sciences reviews. Department of Exercise Science. University of Georgia.
Trinder J, Montgomery I, Paxton SJ. (1988). The effect of exercise on sleep: the negative view. Acta physiologica Scandinavica. Department of Psychology. University of Melbourne.