W FITNESS
L FITNESS
THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP
AND EFFECTS OF EXERCISE
By Charlotte Forde
During the current pandemic, you may have found that your sleep
patterns have changed. You may be sleeping for longer as you are
out of routine and may not have any accountability to wake up at
a certain time or you may be lacking or having interrupted sleep
due to worry and concern about the current situation. Sleep is
a powerful, biological necessity, similar to food and water and
we need it for more than just rest. When you’re taking care of
yourself by making better food choices and exercising regularly,
you’re likely to notice that you are feeling better during the day
and gaining a healthier, more restful, quality sleep at night. Sleep
is the foundation needed to support exercise and healthy eating
habits and exercise can give a boost to sleep in several ways.
Improve the heart. Exercise can contribute to increasing the time
that we spend in the most restorative sleep phase, deep sleep. Deep
sleep helps to boost immune function, support cardiac health,
improves cholesterol levels and controls stress and anxiety.
Support weight loss. When you lack sleep, it can become more
challenging to control behaviours resulting in seeking pleasure in
food or replacing exercise with a “quick fix”. Also, the more time
spent awake, the more time you have to consume convenient food
choices. Getting adequate and consistent sleep supports hormones
to regulate your appetite and food choices.
Decrease in depression, reduce stress and relieve anxiety. Stress
is a common cause of sleep problems including sleeping restlessly
during the night and having difficulty falling asleep. Stress affects
sleep and sleep affects stress and this can play a big role in your
emotional state of mind and your well-being. Exercise can help you
relax, reduce blood pressure, improve anxiety and have a positive
impact on other mood disorders.
Improve your memory and creativity. Healthy sleep puts us in the
right state of mind to take information in throughout the day, we
also need a good night’s sleep to process and retain information long
term. A clear, alert brain allows us to focus, learn and be creative.
Generally, it is harder to think clearly and manage your feelings
when you get less sleep, it can also result in making mistakes and
being less productive.
Help with insomnia and other sleep disorders. Exercise can be
an effective natural therapy for insomnia and other sleep disorders.
However, it can also have the reverse effect on our sleep, as
overtraining can lead to exercise-induced insomnia. Therefore, it is
important to ensure that you are aware of your training limit and
consistency and despite you may only be able to exercise at a specific
time due to your current schedule and commitments, there may be a
time of day that is more suited to the type of exercise that you engage
in or what you want to achieve.
70 wirrallife.com
• Morning exercise gives a boost to deep sleep, therefore if you want
more restful sleep try a morning cardiovascular workout. However,
you don’t want to work too vigorously as your body temperature will
be lower and vulnerable to strain making you more prone to injury.
• Physical performance peaks later in the day and is dependent on
the time that you wake up in relation to the time that you exercise. If
you wake at 6am, you would train around 9am, if you wake at 9am,
you would train around 12pm etc.
• A fasting workout can help you burn more fat, therefore consider
exercising before breakfast. By following your workout with a high
carbohydrate and protein breakfast to boost your metabolism you
can take full advantage of your body’s ability to burn fat. Your fat
burning cycle kicks in again towards the end of the day meaning an
early evening workout can help suppress your appetite and make it
easier to avoid overeating in the evening.
• For power, your ability to exert strength and speed can fluctuate
throughout the day in relation to your body's temperature changes.
The higher your core body temperature is, the quicker your reflexes
will be and the more stamina you will bring to your exercise.
• Muscle strength reaches optimal levels during late afternoon and
early evening for most people. The worst time to strength train is in
the morning when your body is still at its lowest temperature.
• Flexibility training is best exercised when your body temperature
is at its peak, normally around 3 hours after waking or in the early
evening. Yoga is a great evening activity as it helps you relax both
physically and mentally.
When it comes to the timing of exercise, you should be aware that
exercising too close to bedtime may interfere with your sleep, it
can leave you feeling energised and stimulated before bed time and
delay your transition to sleep. Also, your body temperature can stay
elevated for hours after you finish exercising and as your body would
normally experience a drop in core temperature to prepare for rest if
you exercise too close to bedtime your higher body temperature can
interfere with your ability to sleep by keeping you awake.
To get the best possible benefits from sleep, stick to a regular
schedule, going to bed and waking up around the same time each
day; get enough natural light especially earlier in the day and try and
avoid artificial light especially within a few hours of bedtime; get
enough physical activity throughout the day ensuring that you don’t
exercise too close to bedtime; don’t eat food’s high in fat or sugar or
drink alcohol within a few hours of bedtime and keep your bedroom
cool, dark and quiet.