How Exercise Can Help You Sleep Better

It’s common knowledge that regular exercise has far-reaching benefits that go beyond weight loss alone. Increased muscle tone, better cardiovascular health, lower stress levels and higher confidence are a few other well-known perks of keeping yourself on a regular fitness routine. There’s one more that isn’t talked about quite as much, however: improved sleep quality.

The exact links between exercise—how often, how intense, what type, what time of day—and how restful a sleep cycle you’re able to achieve are still being studied. However, there are a few basic correlations that you may not have considered before. So whether you’re simply interested in learning about an additional benefit of getting active, or you struggle with poor sleep quality and are ready to give a new potential remedy a try, here are a few reasons that regular exercise may help you sleep better.

Your body needs plenty of rest to recover after an intense workout, so exercise may help you feel more tired at bedtime. 

If you participate in an invigorating, fat-burning workout, like one of our San Diego outdoor boot camp classes, you’ll likely feel tired afterwards! It’s your body’s way of telling you to call it a day so it can start on the recovery process. The harder the workout, the more muscle fibers your body has to repair and energy it has to regain, so it will demand more sleep. Although it’s not an exact science, it is common for people to feel more drowsy after a high-intensity workout, because the feeling of sleepiness is your body communicating that it needs to rest and rebuild to set you up for more physical activity the next day. Feeling drowsy at bedtime may help you fall asleep more quickly, and stay asleep for longer.

Exercise can improve mood and lessen anxiety and stress, which can help you sleep better.

Some of the foremost causes of poor sleep quality are stress and anxiety. If you find yourself experiencing problems in these areas, give exercise a try! Physical activity releases endorphins in the brain, which are known to help improve mood; exercise has been shown to have anti-anxiety effects, too. Try using it as a tool to lessen your stress and anxiety levels, and you might find yourself falling and staying asleep more easily.

Regular exercise can promote other healthy habits, which can positively impact sleep. 

If you get yourself on a consistent fitness plan and stick to it, you’re likely to begin to adopt other healthy practices into your life, too. Especially if a change in your physique is your goal, you’ll probably begin eating more healthfully, and you might start drinking less. You might take up positive mental practices like mindfulness or meditation. You may start taking daily vitamins, or kicking unhealthy habits like soda drinking or smoking. 

Whatever it may be, people who adopt a regular exercise routine are likely to incorporate more than just that one healthy habit into their life. So whether your sleep quality increases because you improved your diet or started meditating, or because one of your new healthy habits is simply to go to bed on time so you get your full 7-8 hours, implementing an exercise routine for yourself can positively impact your sleep.

Who doesn’t want to get better quality sleep each night? If you’re interested in reaping this common benefit of exercise, reach out to Bootique to arrange your free trial with us. We offer personal training group classes in La Jolla, Mission Valley, and Mission Bay plus Zumba-style cardio dance classes in San Diego as well. Give one of our fat-blasting workouts a try, and see for yourself the other benefits it may bring you!