Can exercise improve my sleep?

Can exercise improve my sleep?

John Spencer Ellis (Author, TV Show Host, Trainer and CEO, National Exercise & Sports Trainers Association) gives expert video advice on: Can exercise improve my mental health?; Can exercise improve my sleep?; Can exercise lower my blood pressure? and more...

Exercise helps improve your sleep for a couple of different reasons. One is that you will have a greater physiological demand for sleep because you challenged your body and then it needs to recover. Remember the only time your body grows or develops or becomes enhanced or improves is not during the physical activity but it's in the night and the nights following the activity when you recover. Specifically in REM sleep, growth hormone is released episodically throughout the day about every 30-45 minutes but more is released at night and even more during REM sleep, rapid eye movement. So when you increase your fitness activity level to an appropriate point, you will have a greater demand for sleep and if all things are going as they should you will also get better quality sleep. You'll get better REM sleep and you will increase the amount of growth hormone which will then improve your physiological benefits from the exercise as well.