Run your way to good sleep.A good night's sleep is not something to trifle with--we all work and feel our best with regular, restful sleep. When something upsets the balance and your sleep is impaired, you suffer for it. It is very likely that runners, as a group, enjoy unfettered sleep more often than their non-exercising counterparts. There has always been a strong association between vigorous exercise vigorous exercise A form of exercise that is intense enough to cause sweating and/or heavy breathing/ and/or ↑ heart rate to near maximum; VE is formally defined as that which requires > 6 METs; there is a graded inverse relationship between total physical and the quality of sleep. If you report insomnia to your doctor, one of her first questions will be "Do you exercise regularly?" Researchers recently looked further to determine whether regular exercise could prevent or treat sleep disorders Sleep Disorders Definition Sleep disorders are a group of syndromes characterized by disturbance in the patient's amount of sleep, quality or timing of sleep, or in behaviors or physiological conditions associated with sleep. including difficulty staying asleep, excessive daytime sleepiness excessive daytime sleepiness Sleep disorders A subjective difficulty in maintaining an awake state, and an increase ease of falling asleep when the person is sedentary; EDS may be quantified with subjective rating scales of sleepiness , nightmares, and other sleep disturbances. Over 700 men and women were involved in the study. They responded to questionnaires, which included questions on exercise and sleep habits. Both men and women who exercised regularly had reduced risk of sleep disorders. Researchers concluded that exercise should be considered as a possible therapy for sleep disorders. As runners, we have always known that exercise is good for almost anything that ails us. That's an idea that these researchers are waking up to. Just one caveat--remember that insomnia can also be a symptom of overtraining overtraining training horses or dogs too hard so that they lose spirit. overtraining Sports medicine A general term for any practice of, or training for, a particular sport which is in excess of that necessary to participate in the sport , which . (Archives of Internal Medicine The Archives of Internal Medicine is a bi-monthly international peer-reviewed professional medical journal published by the American Medical Association. Archives of Internal Medicine , 1998, Vol. 158, pp. 1894-1898) |
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