Exercise and Sleep

Much research has gone into the connection between exercise and sleep, with some significant findings on how each one is beneficial to the other.

How Sleep Improves Exercise

According to studies on the importance of exercise and sleep, adequate sleep can positively affect not only an individual’s ability to perform, but also their stress levels, emotional regulation, learning capabilities and willpower.

Plenty of other studies have found that the sleep deprivation interferes with stress management, emotion regulation, learning, and willpower.

Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D., a health psychologist at Stanford University, makes a strong case for sleep as the most powerful resource for greater self-control and better performance in her "Science of Willpower" course.

McGonigal cites an article in The New York Times that reported on a study from Stanford showing that sleeping 10 hours a night improved the performance of athletes.

The study also noted how the participants felt great after sleeping 10 hours a day, as if they had never known their true potential when they were sleep deprived.

How Exercise Improves Sleep

The impact of exercise on nourishing sleep is also quite profound. Dennis Rosen, M.D., a pediatric sleep specialist who practices at Children's Hospital Boston, cites in his blog, "Sleeping Angels" for PsychologyToday.com, a study reported in the Journal of Adolescent Health. In it, 434 Swiss teenagers were studied to discover how exercise improves sleep.

The Study

The larger group of the participants consisted of 258 athletes who averaged 17.7 hours of exercise per week, while the smaller group of participants consisted of 179 non-athletes averaging 4.7 hours of exercise per week. All of the participants kept sleep and exercise diaries for seven consecutive days and completed a number of questionnaires about the quality of their sleep and other psychological measurements.

The researchers found that the athletes had better sleep quality, and that it took them less time to fall asleep at night than the non-athletes. The athletes also had fewer awakenings during the night than the non-athletes, were less sleepy and had better concentration during the day, with less anxiety and fewer depressive symptoms than the non-athletes.

Additional Findings

Further studies on exercise and sleep have confirmed that people who follow a regular exercise schedule have fewer nights of sleeplessness, realize better sleep quality and remain in the deepest sleep (Stage 4) for a longer period of time.