Sleep On It

Thanks to my buddy and new trainee Luis for providing today's topic. At work, he was telling me about a New York Times article that talked about a particular sleep study that linked regular fitness to better sleep. The experiment found that for every hour of sedentary activity [from the data taken from children participating] it took 3 more minutes to get to sleep. Further, the children who were more active not only got to sleep faster but also slept longer.

In related feedback to this article, (click on the title of this blog), people had various degrees of feedback relating to their own personal experiences. Most of the posts that I saw supported the findings that being more active during the day helped their quality of sleep, but there were a few conflicts. One man explained that his daughter had after-school practices for two different sports and his daughter experienced insomnia. Some posts regarding this explained that this may have been due to overexertion. Also, in other reports, people stated that working out closer to bedtime actually kept them up as did being on the computer or doing other stimulating work.

To some extent, I agree with most of this stuff, but I think there is more that goes into this, and that it also depends on the individual, the stress level, nutritional factors, and anticipation for the upcoming day. Personally, I work evening hours and often get home around 11:30 or 12:00 am. When I get home, I usually shower right away, and sometimes I am exhausted and go right to bed. Other times, I am not tired and stay up to get office work done, read, watch T.V., etc. I feel that I get to sleep better if I allow myself to naturally exhaust myself through doing some stimulating activities and avoiding eating snacks late, although some of the time I most likely could sleep earlier but have important deadlines to meet. If I know the next day will be more exciting or I have a lot to do, I find it is harder to sleep because my mind is on those things. Some things that I find help in this situation are lying on my side and listening to more emotion-envoking music on headphones. This can help me visualize a comforting place or long-term dreams and I feel happier and calmer because of it. Sometimes a light snack such as a small piece of cornbread (recently) helps. Also, I would even say a light alcoholic beverage or a hit of weed helps, although my intention is not to promote drinking or recreational drug use; I am, however, liberal and realistic. Whatever the case, find something that works for you and is healthy, and everyone should integrate better nutritional choices and a daily fitness program for optimal health and wellness. Thanks for reading everyone and have a great day!!