better night's sleep

Could You Exercise Your Way Towards a Better Night’s Sleep?

In the scheme of staying healthy, sleep is one of the most important factors. When combined with regular exercise and good diet which fills your reusable shopping bags with fresh produce, you have the winning combo for a healthy lifestyle. When any of these three are neglected, we soon begin to feel it, and when we’re not getting enough quality shuteye, the effects are fairly obvious.

While caffeine and sugar can help us to keep upright for just that little bit longer, there’s only so long before we can go without sleep until our body puts its foot down. In fact, you may have even heard the phrase “sleep debt”.

By getting our hearts pumping throughout the day, we could be in for a better night’s sleep.

Just like swiping a credit card, every time we miss out on our recommended eight hours, we put our bodies into debt. A debt which will weigh on our shoulders and eyelids until we begin to pay it off with sufficient sleep. According to the US Sleep Foundation, once this sleep debt becomes significant, it can be hard to pay back.

This can also lead to our bodies trying to claw back any snooze time it can, whether you’re at work, in a lecture, or even worse, when you’re behind the wheel of a car.

“A sleepy fatigued person is accident prone, judgement impaired and more likely to make mistakes and bad decisions,” is the word from the Victorian government’s Better Health Channel.

So what can we do to help get us back in to the green zone of good sleep?

Burn off a bad night’s sleep

Most of us would associate sleep with calmness and relaxation, but it turns out that by getting our hearts pumping throughout the day, we could be in for a better night’s sleep.

Maybe we should follow the kids and tire ourselves out more during the day...Maybe we should follow the kids’ example and tire ourselves out more during the day…

Parents may have already witnessed this effect – children who have been active running around or playing all day, often show less resistance getting to sleep after a tiring day.

A study published in the Mental Health and Physical Activity journal found a link between exercise and the soundness of sleep in its participants.

The US Sleep Foundation also references studies which demonstrated that a session of moderate exercise throughout the day led to insomnia patients getting off to sleep faster, as well as overall time they slept.

The Sleep Foundation suggests the reason behind this could be related to the rising and subsequent falling of body temperature during and after exercise, as well as lessening anxiety, agitation and depressive symptoms.

If you’re ready to do something about those restless nights, grab your Onya BPA free drink bottle and get moving – your body will thank you.

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