Trouble sleeping on cardio days?

ladeeda103
ladeeda103 Posts: 12 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi all,

I'm having a terrible time sleeping lately, and I'm curious as to why. I can't seem to fall asleep before 3am, The only significant thing that's changed is I've upped my cardio. I try to focus it mostly in the beginning/middle of the day so I'm not too pumped to relax before bed, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. I am nocturnal by nature, and always have been. But I've been able to conform to a day time schedule for the past few months because it makes everything easier--work, exercise, meal planning, etc. I do have some anxiety problems that occasionally flare up at night, but I was hoping more exercise would help with that. Does anyone else have a problem with this? Will it eventually get better? It's starting to affect my workouts and productivity because I'm so tired from not sleeping the night before. ☹️

Replies

  • daedae171
    daedae171 Posts: 247 Member
    I've never heard of anybody having trouble sleeping after cardio days, in all honesty. I think it just differs from person to person on how their body reacts after intense exercise. Cardio doesn't affect my sleep patterns (although I'm nocturnal as well) and my productivity doesn't change either. I'd say make a minor change or two to your routines so you can wake up and not feel super groggy every day and hope it doesn't affect your productivity. The anxiety thing, I can understand because I've struggled with it and it sucks. But, it's possible to overcome.
  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,208 Member
    One thing you can try is yoga before bed to wind down
    Another option is to do strength training in the evening, using heavy weight. This makes it easier for some people to sleep. Do mostly compound exercises, not isolation exercises (google those terms if they're new to you).
    You can also try dividing the cardio up into multiple shorter sessions per day, which is less stressful to the body. :+1:
  • pomegranatecloud
    pomegranatecloud Posts: 812 Member
    This happens to me when I'm overtired and/or do more intense cardio in the morning. However, I never have any trouble falling asleep if I do cardio in the evenings. Have you tried switching the time you do cardio?
  • pinggolfer96
    pinggolfer96 Posts: 2,248 Member
    I find eating more carbs helps me sleep(: if you're burning through glycogen stores, you could be depleting carbs. Not proven, but just what works for me!
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,994 Member
    What time do you train and then try to go to bed?

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  • cmtristani
    cmtristani Posts: 117 Member
    pomegranatecloud wrote: »
    This happens to me when I'm overtired and/or do more intense cardio in the morning. However, I never have any trouble falling asleep if I do cardio in the evenings. Have you tried switching the time you do cardio?

    This... Try changing the time, if you are doing cardio in the morning try late afternoon instead, or move to earlier in the day if you are working out in the evening. If I workout in the evenings I will be awake all night long, so I do early morning. Try to find that time where you get max benefit without impacting the rest of your day.
  • jdhcm2006
    jdhcm2006 Posts: 2,254 Member
    What time is your workout? It's not uncommon to get wired after a workout. I know it takes me time to settle down after my 7:15pm (90 minutes long) class. Especially since I still have to have dinner, which I typically don't eat until 9:45pm. I'm typically not ready to sleep until 12:30-1am.
  • ladeeda103
    ladeeda103 Posts: 12 Member
    Thank you all so much for the responses. I'll be playing around with different times for my workouts. I usually try to break it up in smaller bits throughout the day. Today I did it all around 8-9 pm, and I'm going to bed now at 12:40. We'll see how that goes.

    The carb thing makes sense, as I have a tendency to get low blood sugar. (I'm not diabetic but I make a habit of checking my blood sugar anyway.) But lately that doesn't make sense, because my levels are higher than normal (but still within normal range). It seems my blood sugar is usually on the lower end unless I'm nearing that time of the month, then my fasting blood sugar goes up. Hormones are strange things. I wonder if pms has anything to do with it.

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