If the findings of a new study are anything to go by, exercising may not help in treating insomnia instantaneously..
The findings of the study thus dispel common notion that a good bout of exercise may enable an individual enjoy sound sleep.
Study Findings
This is a pioneering long-term study that demonstrates that exercises done during the day does not translate into better sleep when people have existing sleep problems.
Hitherto, most studies have attempted to analyze the relationship between exercises and sleep in people who do not have any existing sleep problems; i.e. they are healthy sleepers.
“If you have insomnia you won’t exercise yourself into sleep right away. It’s a long-term relationship. You have to keep at it and not get discouraged,” said lead study author Kelly Glazer Baron, a clinical psychologist and director of the behavioral sleep program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
Exercises Still the Best Bet
There may thus be a time lag before the fruits of exercises can be reaped by people suffering from insomnia. Study cers aver that this lag not withstanding, exercises remain the best bet for people who have sleep disorders.
Phyllis Zee, M.D., the senior author of the study and the Benjamin and Virginia T. Boshes Professor of Neurology at Feinberg and director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital said, “This new study shows exercise and sleep affect each other in both directions: regular long-term exercise is good for sleep but poor sleep can also lead to less exercise. So in the end, sleep still trumps everything as far as health is concerned.”
Zee opined that medications have the potency to induce sleep immediately; however exercises address the underlying problem and therefore would prove to be a healthier way to tackle insomnia.
The latest study has been published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
