Exercise and sleep

Get Your ZZZs

If you’re having trouble sleeping, one small adjustment might help.

According to researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, the time of day you do your exercises may affect your sleep-wake cycle.

Using data collected from a study that examined the effects of exercise on breast cancer risk, researchers found that women who exercised in the morning reported getting better sleep than women who exercised in the evening.

The study wasn’t designed to answer why that might be so, but researchers speculate that morning exercise may prepare the body for a natural cycle of daytime activity and nighttime sleep, while evening exercise may reset that cycle at exactly the wrong time.

Edward Stepanski (a Rush University expert in sleep disorders and research) offered another theory why exercise before bedtime might interfere with dozing off. He told the Associated Press that body temperature is raised during exercise, while a slight temperature drop accompanies sleep.

So if you rise and shine and exercise, you might have more luck catching quality Zs.

And this schedule has a hidden bonus: It allows you to enjoy some guilt-free couch-potato time in the evening.
To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute

Sources:
“Morning Exercise May Make Sleep Easier” Associated Press, 11/24/03, usatoday.com