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The Best Exercises for Getting Good Sleep

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After a long hike, a day at the beach, or a playing physically demanding sport, one thing is for certain: you sleep like a rock. But there is more to that than simply feeling exhausted after physical exertion. In fact, it is well known that regular exercise can improve sleep quality and duration, as well as the symptoms of some conditions that cause sleep disorders.

The good news for the majority of people who aren’t professional athletes or bodybuilders is that even moderate workouts can help improve sleep. Medical experts recommend that individuals exercise for at least thirty minutes a day for a number of reasons relating to health, and sleep is crucial among them. Still, it can be daunting to create a workout routine, even for people who are used to getting regular exercise.

Someone making a workout plan for the first time, or looking to mix up their current routine might wonder: what are the best exercises to do to get quality sleep? Like we said before, you don’t have to be Dwayne Johnson to improve your sleep with exercise.

How Exercise Improves Sleep

group of friends working out in the city

There is a large body of evidence supporting the theory that exercise promotes better sleep. In fact, scientists have been studying the interaction for more than 20 years. Strong evidence pointing to the power of the relationship between sleep and physical exercise is tantalizing to researchers because it opens the door to simple, non-invasive therapies for individuals with chronic sleep problems. But even after more than two decades, scientists are still working to understand the complex physiological forces at play here. Some of the ways sleep has been shown to improve after exercise include:

Which exercises are best?

Even for people who don’t suffer from diagnosed sleep disorders, Johns Hopkins Medicine says that just 30 minutes of exercise can increase the quality of sleep and help people fall asleep faster. In fact, they suggest that regular workouts of any kind that elevate your heart rate can help greatly. Still, for best effects, it’s important to pick a workout that you like enough to incorporate into your routine. Most exercises can be broken up into two main categories: aerobic and resistance. Both have been shown to improve sleep in various populations of people.

Aerobic exercises

If you’re gasping for air during your workout, you’re probably doing aerobics. As the Mayo Clinic describes, aerobic exercises require prolonged exertion by the body, and as blood rushes to provide oxygen to the muscles, breaths become faster and deeper. You don’t have to be moving very fast or lifting very much weight, aerobic exercises are about consistency and duration. Running and jogging are common aerobic workouts. Others include:

  • Cross-country skiing
  • Brisk walking
  • Aerobic dancing
  • Swimming
  • Hiking
  • Stair climbing
  • Bicycling
  • Martial Arts
  • Elliptical training
  • Rowing
  • Roller skating
  • Spinning

As this list demonstrates, many aerobic exercises are common recreational activities. Biking a leg of your commute might be reasonable; maybe you’ve always wanted to try out boxing. Either way, you can improve your sleep by choosing an enjoyable aerobic workout and pick up a new hobby or make a health-focused lifestyle change while you’re at it. That is unless you prefer resistance workouts.

Resistance exercises

Resistance exercises, also known as strength training or weight-lifting, can also improve your sleep even when done with moderate intensity. Harvard Health Publishing says that strength training, like aerobic exercise, can have many health benefits if done properly. To be clear, you don’t have to bench press the refrigerator to realize the benefits of regular resistance training. A few variants of resistance exercises are:

  • Using elastic bands on legs or arms
  • Rock climbing
  • Holding a medicine ball while doing squats
  • Lifting dumbbells
  • Using ankle weights for leg exercises
  • Pull-ups and chin-ups
  • Bench pressing light to moderate weights

 

With simple accessories at home, resistance training can be just as convenient as aerobic exercise. In fact, bodyweight exercises are a great place to start for people looking to begin a new routine or get back into one after taking some time off. And as long as you’re working out regularly, you’re likely to notice improvements in your sleep. Of course, nobody says that you should limit yourself to one type of exercise over another. A healthy routine probably includes both. That’s why there is a bonus exercise category for healthy sleep.

Bonus: Yoga for better sleep

workout Class Having Group Yoga Lesson

Yoga can be an aerobic activity and have elements of resistance training, which makes it a great choice for people looking for a routine that offers a range of exercises, and can improve their sleep in the process. From slow, restorative yoga to power and vinyasa, there are more than a dozen variations to choose from. In some cases, a studio will offer only one practice, but many will have different instructors whose routines will run the gamut.

But the real reason that most forms of yoga are a two-for-one in the sleep department is that many styles incorporate meditation into their practices. Research shows that meditation, through complex interactions in the brain, can improve sleep. In fact, the chemicals that the brain produces in response to regular meditation are the basis for many common anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications. Read on to learn more about styles that incorporate resistance exercise, aerobic workouts, breathing and meditation:

  • Power Yoga: Yoga Journal describes a typical Power Yoga sequence as “building internal heat, increased stamina, strength, and flexibility.” These exercises utilize body weight to strengthen the legs, arms and core. Power Yoga has elements of both aerobic and resistance exercises and is a great way to build strength in your body (and mind) and get better sleep.
  • Ashtanga Yoga: Ashtanga Yoga is vigorous, dynamic, and movement-based. That’s why Yoga Journal argues that it’s definitely an aerobic workout. Whether or not it’s full a full-on cardio workout, the amount of balancing and rhythmic movements can’t be bad for your sleep.
  • Kundalini Yoga: This style of is centered on increasing one’s consciousness. Yoga Journal says it typically incorporates meditation and the chanting of mantras. Incorporating this style into your routine is one way to make meditation, and improved sleep, a habit.

Yoga is a good example of how one activity can influence sleep in multiple ways. That’s because sleep is the result of a very complex system of hormones, neurotransmitters, and other biological signals. No single activity will improve sleep without a healthy lifestyle as a foundation. But regular physical exercise, of varying intensity, with all of its benefits, is a strong place to start. For more lifestyle tips, check out our eight steps to getting a better night’s sleep.

How Vitamin D Affects Your Sleep

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Vitamin D Supplements
Vitamin D – Also called the sunshine vitamin

With a cacophony of health supplements readily available, it is difficult to know which, if any, of these to take. Once you do decide what to invest in, do you know how it will affect you? Will it make you feel sluggish or hyper? Will you struggle to sleep or will it help with sleep? Vitamin D is one of those supplements that have some contention around whether they are necessary or beneficial. But are you getting enough? And how can getting too little affect your sleep?

About Vitamin D

According to the Mayo Clinic, vitamin D is essential in helping your body absorb calcium. Your body creates it by using direct sunlight to convert a chemical on your skin into calciferol (the active form of the vitamin D3). Sadly, vitamin D is only found in a few foods. Depending on the season, amount of time spent outside, and time of day, many people can become vitamin D deficient. This deficiency can range from mild to severe and affects several aspects of the body.

What Happens When You Don’t Get Enough Vitamin D?

Without enough of this vitamin, your bones can become soft and brittle. This can cause a whole host of health issues such as osteoporosis or multiple sclerosis. Though more studies need to be done, there is also a link between vitamin D deficiency and patients with multiple myeloma, prostate cancer, and ovarian cancer. For young children and babies, vitamin D deficiency can lead to rickets: a skeletal-muscular condition that affects normal bone shape and growth. Because vitamin D does not pass through breastmilk, breastfed babies not yet eating solids are most at risk for rickets. For this reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a vitamin D supplement for primarily breastfed babies.

The recommended daily dosage, according to the Mayo Clinic, is 400 international units (IU) for infants up to 12 months, 600 IU for those ages 1 to 70, and 800 IU for those over 70. Ensuring you have the recommended amount daily—whether by food, sunlight, or supplementation—is crucial to your skeletal health.

Blue Sky and Bright Sun lit Rays
Sunlight is the best Vitamin D source

If you ask Yale Medicine, just a few minutes outside (do not forget the sunscreen) can help your body generate plenty of vitamin D. Also be sure to eat foods naturally rich in vitamin D to ensure you are taking in enough. Some of these foods are egg yolks, and fish like tuna and salmon. Some foods are fortified with it, like milk and some cereals. With some sunlight exposure and a varied diet, the vast majority of people do not need to be concerned about a severe deficiency. However, if you stay indoors most of the time and do not regularly consume vitamin D-rich foods—we like fish—taking a supplement may be needed. Ask your doctor about getting blood work done to check your vitamin D levels and decide the appropriate treatment.

Effects on Sleep

Not only is sufficient vitamin D essential for your body, but it is also essential for sleep. In a sleep study published in 2018, it was discovered that the subjects with a vitamin D deficiency were more likely to experience sleep disorders, like insomnia. And the sleep that these patients did get was low-quality sleep. Unsurprisingly, these patients also experienced excessive daytime drowsiness due to the disrupted, low-quality sleep.

While adequate vitamin D intake is crucial for sleep health, how you get it matters, too. It is possible to absorb enough while staying indoors (supplements may be necessary in colder, darker geographical locations). But it may not be the best choice for your sleep. Absorption through sunlight has several benefits.

Here Comes the Sun

Sunlight and sleep are a surprising match: one really aides the other. While sunlight is the best source of vitamin D, it also greatly benefits your sleep. When you get ample sunlight during the day, it helps with setting your biological clock, or circadian rhythm. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that the light and dark cycle of the sun has a powerful effect on your sleep cycle. Darkness causes sleepiness, and bright light causes wakefulness. You can even use this knowledge to manipulate your sleep times. For example, if you need to wake up earlier, eat your breakfast by a window so the sun can assist with waking you up.

Not getting enough sunlight can throw your circadian rhythm for a loop. Staying indoors with artificial lighting and screens can confuse your biological clock, causing you to stay up too late, have trouble falling asleep, or get poor sleep when you finally do. So getting outside for even just a short break every day, and turning those cell phones off at night, will help your circadian rhythm fall into a biologically normal pattern of being up with the sun and sleeping when it is dark. All of this while getting adequate vitamin D and helping both your bones and your sleep.

In Conclusion

By eating a healthy diet with fatty, vitamin D–rich foods, and spending some time outdoors, you will likely have enough vitamin D. Getting an adequate amount will not only help you maintain strong bones, it will also help you sleep better and keep your circadian rhythm on track. All thanks to the sunlight. A healthy lifestyle during your waking hours positively affects your sleeping hours, too!

What Is Sleep Debt and How Do I Pay it Off?

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The sun is shining, the coffee is brewing, and even though you just woke up, all you want to do is go back to bed. Your eyes are heavy and burning, you feel irritable, maybe even a little sick to your stomach. We’ve all been there, that terrible feeling of not being rested despite having just woken up. If this is consistently happening to you, you may be experiencing the effects of sleep debt.

Portrait of successful businessman sleeping during long flight in dimly lit plane

The Center for Disease Control defines sleep debt as “not getting adequate sleepover a series of days” which causes the debt to increase. Basically, it’s when you regularly miss out on the sleep you need. The CDC then gives a good example of a person who needs eight hours of sleep, but only gets six; this would leave this person with a two-hour sleep debt. Not too bad; maybe a long nap the following day could “pay it back,” right?

Theoretically, yes, but most adults lack the time for a two-hour nap every day, and if this person continues to get six hours of sleep nightly, that sleep debt adds up. By the end of one week, this person has a sleep debt of a whopping 14 hours! Not many people have an extra 14 hours to spare throughout the week, and sleep deprivation can have long-term health effects such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. So what are some ways you can recuperate some of your sleep debt?

Weekend “Catch-Up” and Naps

man waking up late on weekendThere is nothing like a slow weekend morning, and while you may be thinking you can “catch-up” on your ZZZs by sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday mornings, that may not actually be the best idea. According to Harvard, though the hours slept on the weekend may technically make up for hours lost during the week, it does not truly even out because the daily amount, quality, and regularity of bed/wake times matter, too. By sleeping in, you run the risk of throwing off your circadian rhythms, causing you to stay up later and continue the cycle of sleep deprivation. As mentioned above, sleep deprivation can have long-term effects on your health, so anything that continues the cycle needs to be stopped. Avoid sleeping in more than an hour or two on the weekends to keep your biological clock ticking correctly.

What about naps? Naps are a great way to get refreshed and cancel some sleep debt, but be careful! Similar to sleeping in, if you nap too long, your circadian rhythms can get thrown off, causing you to stay up later. Sleep.org states that the ideal amount of time for a nap is 20-90 minutes. Any longer than that and you may be up tossing and turning into the wee hours of the morning, causing you to accumulate even more sleep debt.

The same article linked above shares many helpful ideas for canceling sleep debt; the best way seems to be moving up your bedtime just a little earlier. If you manage to get to bed fifteen minutes earlier each night, that is almost two extra hours of sleep per week! Once you’ve adjusted to the fifteen-minute time difference, see if you can bump your bedtime up by a full half-hour. By changing your schedule in this way, you will slowly chip away at your sleep debt and wake more rested.

Lifestyle Adjustments

The CDC states that when sleep deprived, you will sleep deeper. This deep, quality sleep will cancel out your sleep debt more quickly, without you having to make it up hour for hour. Of course, everyone wants to snooze more soundly, so the question remains: how do I get good quality sleep?

There are several lifestyle adjustments that can affect your quality of sleep immensely. One of the first adjustments to look at is your caffeine consumption. Consuming too much caffeine or consuming it too late in the day can have a negative effect on your nighttime sleep; caffeine causes your heart to race, your brain to release dopamine, and makes you feel more awake and alert. So next time you reach for that afternoon cup of coffee, pause and ask yourself if you would rather get some quality sleep tonight. Maybe trying a few jumping jacks, taking a brisk walk, or running up and down a flight of stairs would be a better way to wake up without the pitfalls of caffeine.

Along the same lines of caffeine, you will want to watch your alcohol consumption. Even though a glass of wine or two at the end of the day may help you slip into slumber more easily, alcohol will actually disrupt your cycles by shortening your REM (rapid eye movement) stage. This will cause you to feel foggy and unfocused the following day. If you need help winding down at night, instead of reaching for your wine glass, consider ditching the smartphone.  Screens can also have a detrimental effect; the blue light coming off of the screens can lead to suppression of melatonin and shortened REM cycles, to name a few issues. So instead of preparing for bedtime with a glass of wine and some social media scrolling, maybe give reading a book by dim lamplight a try. You’ll nod off more easily, and your brain and body will thank you when you wake up more rested! 

While limiting caffeine, alcohol, and screen time are some quick-term solutions, there are other lifestyle changes you can commit to that will benefit your sleep and overall health. For example, sticking to a regular schedule of waking up and going to bed at around the same times each day. Optimizing your diet and exercise routine can certainly have a positive impact, resulting in deeper slumber. Another adjustment you can make is to be sure you have the best mattress for you; this will mean less tossing and turning, more pain relief and support, which ultimately leads to more deep, quality sleep.

So, like all debts, sleep debt may take some time to pay off, but it is possible! A little diligence in your lifestyle (especially at night) to ensure better quality sleep, a good mattress, and a little discipline to get to bed earlier will go a long way in paying off that debt. Soon enough, you will be waking up a rested person ready to tackle the day!

The Relationship Between Metabolism and Sleep

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Woman opening fridge

Our sleep and our metabolism are intimately intertwined. Like all major processes of physical homeostasis, sleep plays an important role in the body’s ability to carry out its most vital metabolic functions.

If you’ve ever eaten a very heavy meal and tried to sleep directly after, you are likely anecdotally aware that this is true. The same goes for anyone who has suffered from sleep disorders and noticed a change in their weight and well-being. More and more, sleep and diet researchers are finding links between the quality of our sleep and the ability of the body to process food and nutrients efficiently.

But exactly how are the two processes linked? And what happens to our bodies when we start to lose sleep regularly? Is there a way to boost our metabolic systems by sleeping differently?

Read on for the answers to these questions and to learn more about the connections between sleep and metabolism.

What exactly is metabolism?

Metabolism can be defined as the biochemical processes that must occur to keep an organism alive. For the purposes of this article, we can limit the use of the term to the way the body breaks down calories to provide the body the energy it needs to function. This encapsulates the way we ingest, then digest food and drink.

Obviously, turning the things we eat and drink into usable fuel and building material for the body is a complex process with millions of moving parts. It requires cooperation from the brain, many parts of the body, and the environment a person finds themselves in. All of these factors determine how efficiently our metabolism processes the things we eat.

As we’ll find out, our own behavior when it comes to consumption and sleep also plays a big role.

Metabolism as we sleep

During the course of a normal night of sleep, our body is working subconsciously to maintain itself and our health. Changes in the way we metabolize the things we have ingested is an essential part of this process.

As we move through the sleep cycle, there are significant changes in energy consumption a healthy person should expect to experience in the course of the night. Typically, our metabolism slows about 15% during the night—though it is important to note that it will be higher or lower depending on the exact stage of the sleep cycle we happen to be on at any given time. Growth hormones and cortisol, two majorly important catalysts for proper metabolic functioning, appear to fluctuate systematically during the course of the night in order to maintain the ideal amount of energy consumption and storage that our bodies need.

Sleep disorders and metabolism

One illustrative way to continue examining the relationships between metabolism and sleep is to look at what happens to people’s metabolic processes when they suffer from sleep disorders.

A 2009 paper published in the academic journal Nature Reviews Endocrinology discusses over four decades of research into the subject of sleep disorders and metabolism. The authors write that there is overwhelming evidence that poor or short sleep, especially caused by disruptions associated with sleep disorders, leads to a “deleterious effect on glucose metabolism.”

Metabolizing glucose is essentially the way our body creates energy out of the food we eat. When that process is messed with, we see all sorts of nasty effects, from lethargy and depression all the way to diabetes and obesity.

The paper’s authors also claim that loss of sleep quality and quantity can also lead to problems with the proper functioning of the endocrine system, our bodies’ hormone creating and regulating mechanism. In particular, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) was singled out as a sleep disorder that was deeply linked to endocrine disorders, as well as obesity and certain kinds of diabetes. As discussed before, hormones play a massive role in regulating the metabolic processes of the body, and any disruption to their functioning can and will lead to big problems with our overall health.

OSA is not alone in causing problems. Any sleep disorder that leads to a chronic drop off in either sleep quality or quantity is likely to affect our bodies’ metabolic efficiencies if it lasts long enough. This includes insomnia, restless legs syndrome (which has been linked in particular to problems metabolizing iron), and more.

Woman weighing herself on a scale

Societal changes in sleep and metabolism

Considering the complex interconnectedness between our sleep health and our metabolic health, it is no wonder that scientists are taking a long hard look at co-existing trends towards worse sleep and increases in metabolic disorders across entire populations.

Authors of the 2009 paper in Nature Reviews Endocrinology claim that as sleep quality and quantity have decreased in the United States (for many reasons, as reported elsewhere) rates of diabetes and obesity have increased. The same goes for endocrine irregularities which seem to be exacerbated by sleep troubles, the authors claim.

As diabetes and obesity continue to be massive, consistently growing problems in the United States, the notion that changes in our national sleeping patterns could be partially to blame represent yet another potential avenue for solutions, along with changes to diet and exercise, that are worth exploring. Scientists recommend that doctors working with patients who suffer from these conditions ought to take time to discuss improving the sleeping patterns of their patients in order to combat these potentially deadly diseases.

Achieving a healthy metabolism with healthy sleep patterns

So what can you do to make sure your body’s metabolic processes are working in the way that they should be?

The short answer is one we often talk about: improve your sleep hygiene and routines.

For a more extensive guide to the best possible sleep, check out our longer article filled with tips on how to get the best sleep possible each night.

In the meantime, here are some important things to keep in mind about good sleep, especially when it comes to metabolism.

  • Try to avoid heavy foods right before bed. At night, your body slows down metabolic processes. Forcing it to work overtime to digest things you eat right before bed can interfere with healthy cycles of metabolism.
  • Alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, and other drugs ingested too close to bedtime will likely have a similar effect. We know these substances negatively impact our ability to sleep healthily, and we also know that many of them are directly linked to poorer metabolism functioning.
  • Exercise is a great way to improve both sleep and metabolism. Working out causes your body to consume energy efficiently, and as we mention in our article about how exercise impacts sleep, working out and sleeping create a positive feedback loop that increases our ability to do either activity. For more on how to exercise for sleep, check out our article on the best types of exercise to promote healthy sleep!

Exercise and Sleep: How to Get the Best Rest

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Happy friends exercising by running together outdoors living active healthy lifestyle

It is no secret that rest and regular exercise are both critical to overall health and wellness. But can you have one without the other? The simple answer is, not for long.

You’re probably familiar with the benefits of physical activity. And you’ve probably experienced the interdependence of sleep and exercise. Maybe you’ve had to skip your scheduled workout class because you were jetlagged or had a late night out with friends. Or you might’ve had trouble falling asleep one night when you spent the day lounging on the couch.

Sleep and exercise have been found to be deeply related, and that relationship is reciprocal. Read on to learn about how these two activities affect each other, and for tips on how to get adequate rest to help you maintain a healthy, active lifestyle.

Exercise can improve your rest

Scientists don’t know the exact physiology behind how exercise can improve sleep, but there is no shortage of evidence that it does. In fact, Johns Hopkins Medicine advises that just 30 minutes of moderate exercise per day can lead to better quality zzzs. Whether you’re running, briskly walking, riding a bicycle, or doing resistance weight training, researchers have discovered that regular exercise can help address several nighttime difficulties.

  • Insomnia: Regular physical activity regimens have been shown to improve sleep quality in older adults who suffered from chronic insomnia according to a study published in the journal Sleep Medicine. Insomnia may be acute or chronic difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up too early. To learn more about insomnia, read our article here.
  • Slow-Wave Sleep: Regular, moderate exercise can increase the duration of slow-wave, or Non-REM sleep. According to Johns Hopkins, this is the period that allows your body to recover from the day. Your sleep cycle can be broken into two major phases, random eye movement (REM) and slow-wave or Non-REM sleep. After you fall asleep you begin slow-wave, during which your body and mind recover from the day. Next, you enter REM, when the brain becomes more active and most dreams occur. To learn more about this cycle, read our article here.
  • Depression: Exercise has been shown to reduce depressive symptoms in several studies, including a 2013 study published in the Cochrane Systematic Review. The Sleep Medicine article also found exercise to improve depressive symptoms in subjects. Nocturnal disorders are major symptoms of depression, which is one of the most commonly diagnosed mental health conditions in the U.S.
  • Sleep Disordered Breathing/Apnea: Moderate exercise has been shown to improve sleep-disordered breathing or respiratory issues that interfere with slumber. One of the most common examples is obstructive sleep apnea, which occurs when an individual airway is blocked causing them to temporarily stop breathing and wake up as a result. Exercise may improve the conditions of sleep-disordered breathing and apnea in two ways. For one, excess body weight has been linked to sleep-disordered breathing. In fact, as many as 40% of individuals who experience sleep-disordered breathing can attribute it to excess weight, according to a study in the Journal of Applied Physiology. And according to an article in Harvard Health, exercise is an important part of losing weight and improving sleep quality. Additionally, a study published in the journal Sleep found that regular, moderate exercise improved sleep quality for subjects with obstructive sleep apnea independent of weight loss. Subjects experienced fewer apneas per hour and better REM and Non-REM sleep.

A word of warning about exercising before bedtime: some people may have a hard time falling asleep after working out right before bed. For these individuals, Web MD suggests that a higher core body temperature and heart rate from the workout might be to blame. The good news is that it shouldn’t harm the quality of your sleep, and doesn’t affect everyone the same way. So while it is not ideal for people with a strict bedtime, if you prefer late-night exercise and it doesn’t keep you up at night: carry on!

Getting your 8 hours can improve your ability to exercise

Side portrait of a man sleeping outside

A more recent, though intuitive, finding in the world of sleep and exercise is that there are bidirectional effects. That is, the relationship works both ways.

  • Poor sleep can make it difficult to exercise: A successful exercise routine can improve the quality of sleep, but the contrapositive is also true: sleep deprivation can make it more difficult to perform your exercise routine. In a 1980 study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, researchers found that just one night of sleep deprivation had a negative impact on psychological responses to moderate and heavy exercise. After a full night of proper rest, all of the subject’s responses returned to normal. During the test, physiological measurements remained the same. Subjects felt that they were working much harder during exercise after missing a night of sleep, even though their hearts and lungs were not.
  • Quality rest may, or may not, encourage exercise: The inverse relationship, unfortunately, is not so clear. Scientific studies have different conclusions as to whether getting a good night’s sleep will make you more likely to exercise. Findings from one study in 2013, published in the Journal of Sleep Medicine, suggest that when subjects got more or better quality sleep they were more likely to exercise the following day. These results were more pronounced with individuals who got less rest to begin with. But a study the following year published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine found that improved slumber did not result in increased physical activity among subjects.

Bottom line

Regular exercise can help improve the quality of your rest, and getting quality rest can improve your ability to exercise. Rather than worry about whether the regular exercise or quality slumber came first, anyone looking to build, or build upon a healthy lifestyle, should work to incorporate both. And if you’re starting your nighttime ritual, read our eight sleep tips.