From workout to wind-down, the link between regular exercise and improved sleep is certainly a strong one. This month, Max and Rachel of Elevate Fitness are here to explain how regular movement can impact your sleep, the ways in which it can help you to feel more energised, and perhaps most importantly, what you can do to help ensure a good night’s rest.
We all know the feeling of getting home after a long day, tired and ready for bed. So we understand your frustration when you lie there unable to drift off and feel even more fatigued! Many people will turn to medical treatments such as sleeping pills or meditation apps to help them drift off, but we’re here to tell you that there may be a simpler solution to your problem – exercise.
How can exercise help?
Exercise improves our body’s ability to control its own internal temperature (thermoregulation) which in turn will help how easily or quickly you fall asleep (also called a reduced sleep latency). If you’re like us and one of you is constantly hot and the other constantly cold, it can be hard to find a comfortable sleeping temperature, hence why regular movement will help your body to regulate.
Daily movement will improve your circulation which will aid your body in being able to quickly warm up or cool down the areas that need it. If you work a desk job then you may notice you start to feel chilly after being sat down for a few hours, simply getting up for a quick 10 minute walk around the office will boost your circulation and help to regulate your body temperature (it’s not all about what we do at home but what we do everywhere!).
Not only will regular exercise improve your circulation, the drop in body temperature after you finish a workout mimics the drop that occurs just before you go to sleep, helping to signal to your brain that it’s time to wind down.
Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of regular exercise is how it helps to reduce anxiety and stress levels (which can also be referred to as an anxiolytic effect). We know how busy the days can get and often you don’t switch off when you leave the office, so taking time to relieve stress and pressure is essential to help wind down later in the evening.
This doesn’t mean that you have to do a full workout every day, you might like to try and yoga or stretch class to unwind the body, we find that now the evenings are getting lighter we enjoy going for a short walk to get some fresh air, so have fun experimenting with some different ways to release stressful energy form the body!
How can you improve your sleep?
Now, this is all well and good but we can’t rely on our bodies to do all the hard work for us! Whilst regular movement has been shown to improve our sleep and reduce fatigue, there are also a number of things that we recommend you do in order to aid a better night’s rest.
Firstly, reducing screen time is a really effective way to help with a better sleep. There are a number of studies that have shown avoiding screens in bed or right before you go to bed will improve your sleep, this is due to reducing your exposure to bright and/or blue light which inhibits the sleep hormone melatonin. We recommend that rather than looking at phones or watching TV in bed, you opt for reading a book, listening to a podcast or even some calming music to help your brain wind down more effectively.
Secondly, it’s important that we take time to switch off from the rest of our day before we head to bed as often we are carrying a lot of stress and fatigue from work or our daily lives. Here at Elevate, our number one rule is that one hour before we go to bed, we stop all work or anything that requires us to be concentrating and we take that hour to do something that helps us to relax. This could be anything you like, Max is a big fan of reading in the evening whilst Rachel will opt for a short yoga session to help unwind – it’s important to have time to switch your brain off and begin the wind down process before you physically get into bed.
The setting makes all the difference
You’ve taken all the steps so far to winding down, so now it’s time to ensure that when you get into bed, you have created a calm environment for your body to rest in. There is a lot to be said for very low, warm lighting in bedrooms as this encourages the production of melatonin. We also highly recommend avoiding screens in bedrooms, as previously mentioned, as this can stop the brain from being able unwind properly and reduce the quality of your sleep – your bedroom should be associated with sleep rather than pastimes.
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There are simple things you can do to regulate your body temperature at night, perhaps the simplest thing being to add a small fan (if you’re like Max then you will have this all year round!) and/or having the windows slightly open, which also encourages the circulation of fresh air into the room. If you find you struggle to relax or get rid of tension in the evening, you could even look at adding some essential oils into the mix. Rachel is a big fan of Lavendar oil in the evening, just a little on the inside of the wrists or the sides of the head can help the body to slow down and relax – sometimes if the simplest things that help!
So, when we put all of this together, it becomes clear that there are several elements working together that can help to improve your sleep cycle and improve your wellbeing. We encourage you over the next couple of weeks to start trying some of these techniques and see if your sleep improves, maybe you could even start a sleep journal to see the changes! More movement, better sleep, enhanced wellbeing – it really is that simple.
About Elevate Fitness
Elevate Fitness is a personal training and wellbeing company founded by Max Phillips and Rachel Parnell. Based in West Sussex, they specialise in one-to-one training sessions and online programmes. Max and Rachel help their clients build fitness, improve their health, and feel more confident in their daily lives. Elevate Fitness sessions are usually held in Warnham and Horsham, both as gym-based and at-home training. They also have an online service with training programmes and workouts that people can fit around busy schedules. Discover more about this approachable, friendly and hugely motivating couple at: https://www.elevatefitness.uk/
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