Sleep & Exercise

Are you getting enough sleep and exercise? Are you getting enough of either? Sleep and exercise have been known to have a complex reciprocal relationship, making it crucial for adequate sleep time and activity to be met.

Balance

Creating a balanced lifestyle has a huge impact on mental health. The most important element of a balanced healthy lifestyle is excercise and sleep. (Weinert, D., & Gubin, D. 2022)

Falling asleep can be a tough task when you have constant thoughts in your head that will interfere with your sleep schedule. Maintaining a balanced sleeping schedule can help improve mental illness. Melatonin is also recommended for these types of situations (Weinert & Gubin, 2022).

Tips to Improve Sleep

Creating a routine can help motivate you accomplish tasks that you struggle to tackle as it also helps reduce stress.
Physical activity during the day can lead to an earlier release of melatonin in the evening, which may be why people who exercise fall asleep quicker.
A balanced diet can affect the quality of sleep you have throughout the night because vegetables and fruits are able to provide the recommended daily intake of vitamins and nutrients, contributing to better sleep while promoting a healthy weight (Weinert & Gubin, 2022).

The reciprocal effect

Sleep loss has been found to alter exercise in non-trained individuals through direct and indirect effects such as fatigue, sleepiness, and mood (Chennaoui, Arnal, Sauvet, & Leger, 2014).
Sleep disturbances have been associated with overtraining when periods of intense exercise have occurred (Chennaoui et al., 2014).
A recommendation of regular moderate-intensity exercise has been linked in treatment or prevention of sleep disorders (Chennaoui et al., 2014).
An increased risk for chronic pain in the back, neck and shoulders has been linked to sleep problems. But with regular exercise and maintenance of body weight can reduce the effect of the sleep and chronic pain relationship (Chennaoui et al., 2014)

References

Chennaoui, M., Arnal, P. J., Sauvet, F., & Léger, D. (2014). Sleep and exercise: A reciprocal issue? Sleep

Medicine Reviews, 20, 59-72. 10.1016/j.smrv.2014.06.008.

Weinert, D., & Gubin, D. (2022). The impact of physical activity on the circadian system: Benefits for health, Performance and Wellbeing. Applied Sciences, 12(18), 9220. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12189220.