Author:
Floris WoutersonExercise is healthy, that's common knowledge. But did you know that daily exercise is not only good for your body, but also crucial for your sleep? What is the best way to exercise and thus sleep better? And is a lot of exercise better? In this blog we explain it to you and give you some valuable tips.
As paradoxical as it sounds, exercise is crucial to a good night's sleep. If you add an exercise program to your daily routine, the positive effects on your sleep are phenomenal. The study Effect of Acute Physical Exercise on Patients with Chronic Primary Insomnia (2010), found that participants' sleep efficiency improved by 13 percent after adding an exercise program.
In addition to the exercise program, no pills or other medications were used. Yet 55 percent of the participants with sleep problems were found to fall asleep faster thanks to the exercise program. 30 percent lay awake less during the night and 18 percent slept longer!
The very best medicine for sleeping well
Sleep experts agree that exercise is probably the very best medicine for sleeping well. We're talking about regular exercise - and not just once a week. Even exercising three times a week won't get you there, depending on what the rest of your day looks like.
Scheduling separate exercise moments is crucial for a good night's sleep, but the trick is to be active throughout the day. A workday used to consist of physical labor: first hunting and then came farming. Unfortunately, this has changed dramatically in recent years. Nowadays, we sit for a whopping 9.3 hours on average - and that's longer than we sleep (shock)!
Here's how to make sure you move more
We challenge you to look at how to introduce (more) movement in all kinds of everyday situations. And above all: to make sure you sit less. There are super many times when you can move extra than you normally do. Some examples:
- Walk around while calling
- Take only the stairs instead of the elevator
- Move your car farther away from the office
- Take the bike instead of the car
Extra tip: Put a Pomodoro timer on your phone and set it to signal you every 30 minutes. Then get up, stretch for a bit and move around a bit. Get coffee, do yoga or give your partner a hug. This really doesn't have to take long: just 2 to 5 minutes and you can get back to your work after that.
You can also go one step further (literally, haha) and purchase a pedometer. It has been proven that people who regularly step on the scale are more successful at losing weight than those who don't. It works the same way with exercise: by measuring your activity daily, you automatically start moving more. A magical result!
Number of steps per day for better sleep
To effectively improve your sleep, we recommend a number of steps per day:
- 0-5,000 steps: Unfortunately, this is too little to notice the positive effects on your sleep.
- 5,000-7,500 steps: This is going in the right direction, but are also unfortunately still too few steps. But better than nothing at all!
- 7,500 - 10,000 steps: Your goal is coming into view to benefit from all the positive effects on your sleep.
- 10,000 - 12,500: Congratulations! This is great. Keep this target and you will naturally start sleeping better.
If you walk at least 10,000 steps daily, you will notice the benefits of exercise in your sleep: you fall asleep faster, have a much deeper sleep and wake up less often. Please note that you will only achieve these results if you exercise and/or exercise regularly. Be patient and build it up slowly. After the first week you will not see any big differences, but after some time you will definitely notice it!
The best time for a workout is early in the morning
While it is good to be active throughout the day, the morning is the very best time to schedule an exercise activity. Appalachian University in North Carolina conducted research on different workout times and the impact on sleep: working out at 7 a.m., 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.
As it turned out, the people who did a morning workout at 7 a.m. slept longer and deeper than those in the other two groups. In fact, the morning group had 75 percent more deep sleep, which is essential for physical recovery. So be sure to take advantage of this knowledge if you want to sleep better!
Why exercising at night is not good
It may feel a little counterintuitive, because you may think you fall asleep faster at night after a vigorous exercise session. We would like to help you out of this illusion: in fact, it is not good to exercise at night. In fact, exercising at night causes your central body temperature to rise sharply. It usually takes four to six hours for this temperature to drop again. This does not benefit your sleep.
If your body prepares for a good night's sleep, this temperature automatically drops. But if you exercise before you go to sleep, you will get in the way of a good night's sleep. If you really don't have time to exercise in the morning or afternoon, you can also do it in the evening, but make sure you do it no less than five hours before you go to bed.
If you have any questions about a sleep-related topic, feel free to contact us. We would love to help! Email info@houseofsleep.eu or visit our contact page to see all other contact options. Good luck - and for later: to bed on time!