Last Updated on May 23, 2024 by Tom
Last Updated on May 23, 2024 by Tom
There’s a general agreement that ideal time for exercises is any time you feel like it. But, for people that have trouble sleeping, the time of the workout can affect their sleep quality. Someone who exercise in the morning will fall asleep faster than someone who do it in the evening. However, people who do their workout in the evening sleep better than people who don’t exercise at all, but they also sleep better than people who exercise in the morning. The main question that occurs is, are there some types of workout that could actually make you sleep better?
For the beginning, let’s see are late night workout sessions harmful for your sleep? We believed for a long time that late night exercises increase our heart rate and raise our body temperature. They also increase the production of adrenaline and cortisol, which are not really ideal for sleeping. Or so we believed.
Well, the latest studies prove the opposite. People who did some workout before going to sleep had the same quality of sleep as they had on nights they skipped the workout. It looks like that during the hour following our workout the level of stimulating hormones drops tremendously, which puts us into sleepy state.
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Now, we wonder if there’s a way to increase the merits of workout without harming the quality of our sleep. There are some exercises that will help your muscles relax and get your metabolism active for long after you fall asleep. The best thing is, you don’t need to hit the gym for these. All you need is a bit of space and good will.
Your body temperature rises with exercise and then drops with your post-exercise cool down, which actually helps you fall asleep. This usually takes about an hour or so. If you can’t time your HIIT workout, run, or regular strength training session to end an hour before bedtime, stick to light bodyweight exercises.
Make sure you do it within an hour before bed. Just be slow and deliberate; don’t get your heart rate up too high immediately before bed.
Lie down in bed or sit so your spine is straight, and your trunk is grounded. Take a deep, slow, sustained breath that starts at the bottom of your diaphragm; this is called belly breathing. Focus on filling your stomach so it sticks out, then let the oxygen expand from the bottom of your chest cavity up toward your throat, so your lungs are the last to rise. Inhale for three counts. Hold it for two. Then, exhale slowly for four. You want the exhale to be longer than the inhale. The most important thing is to do this while your mind is relaxed. You don’t want to deep breathe while watching television or checking email.
You can go through pretty much any yoga movement before bed so long as you skip any inversions (your head is upside-down) and moves that can stress your groin. Poses that are intrinsically more difficult for men (like wheel, headstand, and crow pose) aren’t great before bed because you’re stressing your body rather than lulling it into a state of drowsiness. 6.
6. Mountain Pose: Stand tall with feet together, shoulders relaxed, weight evenly distributed through your soles, arms at sides. Take a deep breath and raise your hands overhead, palms facing each other with arms straight. Reach up toward the sky with your fingertips.
7. Warrior: Stand with legs 3 to 4 feet apart, turning right foot out 90 degrees and left foot in slightly. Bring your hands to your hips and relax your shoulders, then extend arms out to the sides, palms down. Bend right knee 90 degrees, keeping knee over ankle; gaze out over right hand. Stay for 1 minute. Switch sides and repeat.
Anything that opens up and releases your most-stressed joints is conducive to sleep. Stretching your hips and back—two of the most worse-for-wear areas on a guy—are particularly important
8. Bridge: Lie face up with knees bent, feet flat on floor, arms extended by sides, palms up. Keeping shoulders down, engage abs and press into heels to lift hips and back to form a diagonal line from shoulders to knees. Hold for 8 to 10 breaths; lower.
9. Seated Side Bend: Sit on pillow in a cross-legged position. Place left hand on floor to side of hip, left elbow slightly bent. Extend right arm by ear. Lean to left, keeping butt on floor, shoulders down. Hold for 8 to 10 breaths. Switch sides; repeat.
10. Rag Doll: Stand with feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent. Place right hand on left elbow, left hand on right elbow. Bend over from hips, letting arms and head hang down.Hold for 8 to 10 breaths. Gently roll back up.
Contrary to the popular opinion, not all exercises are bad for sleeping. As a matter of fact, it really depends on type of the workout you’re doing. It’s also important not to overdo it and go into a tempo which will kick start your organism into full awake mode. There are types of workouts that help you sleep better if you do it some hour before hitting the mattress, like light body-weight exercises, breathing, yoga, and stretching. Applying some of these pre-bedtime routines, or even all of them, you’ll keep yourself healthy but you’ll also sleep well.
