Exercise and sleep

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ceiswyn
ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Exercise is meant to make you sleep better - but I find that on my heavy-for-me workout days, I’m restless all night and wake up early.

Anyone know why this might be, or have any ideas to help me sleep better on Tuesday nights after Zumba (‘STRONG’ variant) and dance?

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  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
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    ...and then I noticed that I didn’t want breakfast this morning and in fact felt slightly ill at the thought, and realised my blood sugar had tanked, tanked like an entire armoured division. Which I guess may also have something to do with the sleeplessness...
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
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    When my husband did swimming competition training evenings, he couldn't sleep either. High intensity workouts can do that for some people. If you can switch this to earlier in the day it won't be a problem, or try a long cool down after to calm you, or a long warm shower,--you get the idea. Good luck, I'm sure there's a solution for you.
  • edmudman
    edmudman Posts: 58 Member
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    What time of day are you exercising at ? Exercise will release endorphins, which will give a high.
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
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    In that case I'm basically just screwed for Tuesday nights :) Zumba is at 4pm, dance is at 8pm, and then I have to walk a mile and a half to the station and don't get home until 10.30pm at best!

    But I also sleep badly if all my exercise was early in the day; for example, I went hiking in the hills on Saturday morning, was done by 1.30, and still slept badly that night. And after eating back two thirds of those calories, too.
  • Mandylou19912014
    Mandylou19912014 Posts: 208 Member
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    I would advise taking ZMA’s which really help you to sleep. Also do you eat quite late in the night after exercise? If so, maybe try having a very light meal straight after or eating an hour before? I find that exercise helps me to sleep probably from the exhaustion! But you need to give yourself time afterwards to wind down
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
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    I take a packed dinner into town and eat it between Zumba and dance, and then a snack on the train after dance. And I am NOT giving up dance class, I adore it. We’re doing a dance to You Can’t Stop The Beat at the moment, with a fun lift, and I could just dance all the way to the train station afterwards :)
  • smolmaus
    smolmaus Posts: 442 Member
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    This is a bit tongue in cheek, but have a glass of wine? If the problem is your brain is buzzing from the exercise then slowing it down a bit with some booze might work!
  • JBApplebee
    JBApplebee Posts: 481 Member
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    Or try Melatonin. It helps on those nights where I just can't quite nod off.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,971 Member
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    Melatonin and I don't get along! Talk about bizzarro dreams.

    OP, I say just live with it for one night. I used to work nights and it was impossible for me to wind down and go to bed for at least a few hours. Sometimes SleepyTime tea helped.

    If it isn't affecting your work or concentration during the day, I found my body played catch up later.
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
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    Unfortunately it is affecting my ability to do anything on Wednesdays... I might give melatonin and calming teas a shot. The worst that can happen is I remember I don't like chamomile :)
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,971 Member
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    Ah, well good luck. The Vanilla Honey SleepyTime is good, I'm not a big fan of chamomile, either. I also really like the "Wellness" version of SleepyTime. It has Valerian in it and it's very calming for me.

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