Surprising Ways That Exercise Can Improve Your Sleep

If you're having trouble falling asleep at night, the answer may not be in your sleeping pill. While taking over-the-counter medications and drinking a glass of warm milk may work for some to ensure a good night of rest, you can start supporting your beauty sleep far before your head hits the pillow. Time Your Exercise Right According to the National Sleep Foundation, exercise can benefit your nightly sleep, as long as you time it right. It helps to exercise early in the day, when a good workout session can improve alertness and increase your metabolism. But if you hit the gym just hours before bedtime, it could actually have the opposite effect to trigger a burst of energy that could lead to a poor night's rest. For the best results, experts recommend exercising a minimum of three hours before you go to bed; the preferred time is late afternoon. Once you time your exercise schedule right, you'll receive all the benefits that physical activity has to offer in regulating body temperature to make it easier to sleep at night. Body temperature naturally rises during exercise and could take up to six hours to fall again. For a comfortable night of sleep, your body needs to be at a cooler temperature to induce drowsiness. This is why it's critically important to give yourself enough time to "cool down" after exercise to get ready for sleep. Exercise Regulates Your Body Clock Now that you know when to exercise to improve your sleep, it helps to understand why. Regular exercise can help to regulate your body clock to make sure that your circadian rhythms stay on track. Even better, when you exercise in the daytime in the outdoors, exposure to natural light will help to promote sleep when it gets dark outside. If you find yourself tossing and turning or have suffered from insomnia in the past, exercise may be exactly what you need to get your sleep habits back on track. When you engage in cardiovascular exercise and use your leg muscles in an intense workout, it will serve as a natural tranquilizer to make it easier to drift off to sleep at night. A good, hard workout will most often be rewarded with a good night of sleep. The reason why? When you exercise, it breaks down your muscle tissue. This same tissue needs time to repair in order to bounce back for the next workout. As a result, your body will fall asleep faster to repair sore muscles in a deep, restful night of sleep. Exercise to Reduce Stress At the very least, the fun act of exercise, especially in a group setting, has been proven to help reduce stress and anxiety. If your sleep cycle is disrupted due to constant worry, exercise will make it easier to relieve stress through a healthy channel so that you can rest easy night after night. To make exercise enjoyable, engage in an activity that you love so that working out doesn't feel like a chore! Consider taking a class or joining a sports team, like a local Austin indoor soccer league, to meet new friends. Darcey Deeds is a freelance writer out of Austin, Texas. He currently has teamed up with Avila Soccer which is the leader in Austin Indoor Soccer for both kids and adults.