Exercise: a requirement for sleep?

I've read many anecdotes about exercise improving sleep, but research seems to show something else:<p><i>In a representative study that he led several years ago, for instance, college students — some athletic, some sedentary — kept detailed sleep and exercise diaries for months. At the end of that time, the researchers cross-referenced the diaries and found no notable correlation between exercising more and sleeping better or vice versa. Meanwhile, in a second part of the same study, a group of adults wore monitors that recorded their movements and sleep patterns. The participants also filled out activity diaries. Using the objective data from the monitors, together with the diary reports, the researchers found only marginal impacts on sleep from exercise. The most active volunteers tended to fall asleep about a minute and a half faster than those who were the least active. Otherwise, their sleep was virtually identical.</i><p>From <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/phys-ed-does-exercise-help-you-sleep-better/" rel="nofollow">http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/phys-ed-does-exerci...</a>

For the last couple years, I was working around 10 hours a day and did absolutely no exercise. It took me sometimes up to one hour to fell asleep, probably because of that.<p>Now I started going to the gym again, 3-4 times a week for one hour, doing light exercise to compensate all the hours sleeping. As a result, my back no longer hurts, I sleep better and feel a lot more focused in what I'm doing.

Absolutely agree that exercise is vital to good sleep and furthermore good sleep is vital to good health.<p>A few other sleep hacks:<p>- Sleep in complete darkness. Increases melatonin production. It's best if you can sleep until you wake up without an alarm which means not being disturbed by the sunrise. More reading on the link between darkness and melatonin: <a href="http://drbenkim.com/articles-sleep-darkness-prevent-cancer.htm" rel="nofollow">http://drbenkim.com/articles-sleep-darkness-prevent-cancer.h...</a><p>-Avoid blue spectrum light exposure for an hour before bed. Not sure if there is any research on this but it definitely does the trick for me. I bought a couple red light bulbs to use to catch up on reading. Now the red light is part of my routine that seems to just trigger me feeling sleepy as soon as I turn it on.<p>- Magnesium citrate before bed. Most people are deficient in magnesium anyway. Helps keep you regular and definitely knocks me out before bed. Check out Natural Calm.

I personally find that once you loose routine from exercise you do it less.<p>I've often thought that it would be better if you could find others that regularly want to exercise doing something that you also enjoy at the same time, but I've not figured out a way to do this. Somet like sports-buddy.com would be the idea there I guess.<p>I also found that late night exercise was actually a hinderance to sleep. A problem when the most popular time slot for badminton is 8pm til 10pm which is too late for me I've found.<p>Leaving work early to play badminton 6 til 8 worked much better for me, both in terms of better exercise and sleeping better, but I did find that if I didn't eat a snack mid afternoon (3.30ish) then my energy levels dropped off too quick.<p>I'm slowly getting better at exercising again through going for regular small bike rides, but hope to get my shoulder injury seen to with the new companies healthcare soon, which I hope will mean more badminton again next year :)<p>So, perhaps it's more the finding a sport that interests more than gym and swimming, and provides some social interaction is what we're all looking for?

Keith Norris <a href="http://theorytopractice.wordpress.com/" rel="nofollow">http://theorytopractice.wordpress.com/</a> writes a blog I like that has some great ideas for short intense workouts. I never have trouble sleeping after a heavy deadlift session, for example, and you can annihilate yourself in 20 minutes of lifting. Alternatively you can mix stuff throughout the day: pushups, pullups, etc.

A little OT, but for me exercise is important for focus and positive thinking. I often get into a slump if I stop exercising for two weeks. Then, I go and run 4 miles and my head is clearer and I accomplish difficult tasks with ease.<p>I absolutely wouldn't be able to do good work if I didn't exercise. And, it helps prevent me from leaving dishes piled up and vegging out on the couch.

In my experience the type of exercise matters a lot: after my average cycling training (50-100km) my legs are hurting but I feel more energetic and awake. Mostly it results in staying up later than normal.

I think the best solution for busy people would be a treadmill desk. As a student, I used to study while briskly walking on a treadmill, which meant that I only had to sacrifice driving time.

Once you start exercising more and get use to it, you'll have to be careful when you do your exercise. I find that anything that blasts my heart rate into high (+140.. guess its all relative though) for long periods of time (more than 30 minutes) will prevent me from sleeping for the next ~2-4 hours. I'll sleep fine afterwards, but during that time, trying to sleep is a usually a lost cause.<p>There are always exceptions though, and it really varies from body to body.<p>The basic advice being 'listen to your body' and 'adjust to how your body reacts' applies to everything to do with exercise.<p>(Also, noticing your note about 20 minutes transit. Strongly consider running/biking to the gym. Dunno what type of weather you have over there, but in anything above -10, you should be fine with a 10 minute run with sweatpants over shorts and a sweater. Just bring one of those satchet bags with shoes, lock, extra jacket or something. You'll save time, and feel badass when you bounce into the gym heart already pounding, and a few randoms looking at you going 'wow, he's ready')

Exercise does not guarantee a good night's sleep and can actually hinder it. Good health does (guarantee a good night's sleep). The link between exercise and sleep has more to do with the fact that people who exercise are mostly in better health that the counterparts.

It's the same for me, but even short (10 minutes) intense exercises during the day help me sleep much better. That's fortunate because I wouldn't be able to fit hour long exercises into my workday.

I, for some reason, cannnot fall asleep if I workout at night. I get so pumped up that sleeping becomes impossible. Working out in the morning works the best. I feel energized throughout the day and byt the time bedtime comes around I am wasted.