“The guideline is not to practice it three hours before going to sleep”

When it comes to combating the hated insomnia, there are many techniques that are commonly used, such as stay away from cell phone screenshaving a room with a good temperature or even relaxation techniques. But one of the most important tips we can also give is not to exercise several hours before going to bed, because instead of making us sleep peacefully, it will make us wide-eyed.

An inconsistency. Under the principle of logic, it is known by all that when we do an intense workout we end up exhausted and wanting to lie down in bed after a shower. This relationship may make us believe that doing sports can actually cause us to rest much better, but the reality is quite different.

It’s not the sport. With this statement, we should not fall into the idea that exercising is bad for getting a good night’s sleep, because it is false. The opposite happensas official guidelines point out, such as that of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, which point because practicing regular exercise is one of the most effective tools to maintain good sleep hygiene. In fact, massive population studies show that those who play sports sleep better than sedentary people.

The conflict is in the time we leave between finishing a sports session and going to sleep. And if we finish playing sports at nine at night and want to sleep at ten thirty, we are going to find ourselves with a highly stimulated nervous system that does not allow the body to secrete melatonin and lower body temperature.

Demonstrated. A comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis published in Nature concluded that moderate intensity exercise during the day is the best ally for sleep, since it reduces the time we are awake once we fall asleep. However, researchers drew a red line when they saw that crossing the barrier of 90 minutes of intense exercise at night is directly associated with poor quality rest.

This idea is reinforced by recent research, such as Leota’s studiowhere it is shown that very long training sessions in the evening generate such metabolic excitement that they drastically hinder the onset of sleep.

Beyond melatonin. This is known as the ‘sleep hormone’ and without a doubt the one that has transcended the most to society and who tries to compensate through pills that are sold in any supermarket. But there is another very important molecule that explains this phenomenon, which is orexin.

This is nothing more than a natural neuropeptide of the brain that is very high in the morning to activate us and that cAs the day goes by, your concentration decreases. until it is at a minimum concentration so that we can sleep at night. The problem is that exercising intensely activates its production and that is why, when we want to sleep, it remains at a high concentration that can cause us to have problems falling asleep.

The experts. One of the voices that has pointed to this period of hours between exercise and going to bed is that of Alfredo Rodríguez Muñoz, professor of Psychology, through a interview in The Voice of Galicia. In this one he points out “the guideline is not to practice it three hours before going to sleep.”

The recommendation given in this case is that the exercise should always be done first thing in the morning or first thing in the afternoon. In this way, we manage to maintain the benefits during rest, but we do not sacrifice our hours of rest.

Images | Tania Mousinho Victor Freitas

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