Another reason to exercise!!!

Yes, another reason to exercise is noted here. Not only is exercise important to your health for so many reasons, this article from Science Daily notes a study from a university in Brazil that is "...the first to look at the importance of using physical exercise to treat insomnia, and may contribute to increased quality of life in people with one of the most important kind of sleep disorders around the world"

The study explored the effects of moderate aerobic, heavy aerobic and moderate strength exercise on sleep. Four groups of people with primary chronic insomnia, one for each type of exercise and a control group, were run through their paces (so to speak :-) ).

The results of all the exercise groups were:

• reduction in sleep onset latency of 54%
• reduction in wake time of 36%
• increase in total sleep time of 21%
• increase in sleep efficiency of 18%

However the best results were after moderate aeroboc exercise:

• reduction of sleep onset latency of 40%
• increase in total sleep time of 37%
• and, a reduction of the anxiety state of the partipants in this group of 7%!

That is amazing!!! I suspect most of us already had the feeling we had a better sleep after a good work out and this reinforces that. Might also help some sleep challenged people avoid, reduce or eliminate their need for assistance from a prescribed drug.

I am not sure if the fact that the significant majority of the study were women vs a 50%-50% split is important in this case?

I know for me long walks at a good clip in the fresh air always seems to help.