Evening workouts can be stimulating—here's how to wind down and sleep well.
For many people, the evening hours are the most convenient time to exercise. Whether their circadian rhythm skews later and they get a burst of energy at night or a nighttime workout is simply the best option for their schedule, hitting the gym or going to a workout class at night is common.
The only problem? Nighttime workouts can disrupt your sleep. A 2019 study found that study participants who worked out too close to bedtime didn’t fall asleep as quickly and had poorer sleep quality overall.
Because sleep is essential for both physical and mental health, this isn’t exactly welcome news for anyone who prioritizes their health. Luckily, there’s quite a bit you can do to stop your workout from disrupting your sleep—here’s everything you need to know.
Consider Type, Timing, and Nutrition
The good news? In general, you don’t have to worry too much about your workouts impacting your sleep. The same study found that while nighttime workouts can have a negative impact on sleep, when you work out and the type of workout you do matters: People only saw their sleep suffer if they worked out less than one hour before bedtime and engaged in a vigorous form of exercise—like HIIT, for example.
If you’d rather not change the timing of your workout or you really love high-intensity workouts, Equinox Tier X trainer Michael Crandall says you can do a few things to prepare your body for rest after a tough workout.
“An easy way to think about it is that after an intense workout—heavy weights, a HIIT class, etc—our body’s metabolism will favor carbohydrates as a fuel source,” he explains. “This can also be synonymous with stress. After a workout, our body is perceiving stress and its metabolic functions are acting to replenish the carbohydrate stores we depleted from training."
To remedy this, load up on healthy carbs (minimally processed whole grains, fruits, and veggies), and protein (i.e. fish, chicken breast, turkey breast). “The best thing we can do after a workout is kick off the repair process via protein and carbohydrates as soon as possible."
Try Deep Breathing
It can be annoying when someone tells you to take a deep breath when you’re stressed out, but that suggestion is a solid one: Deep breathing is good for just about everything, including preparing your body for sleep after a tough workout.
As Crandall explains it, after a tough workout, your heart rate variability—or the amount of time between your heartbeats—will have taken a bit of a beating. So if you want to better prepare yourself for sleep, consider your breathing rate. “Lots of studies point to a slow respiration rate to improve our HRV. This is especially practical as even just imitating a slow breathing rate can acutely impact our ability to improve our HRV and help us destress,” Crandall says.
Long story short: If a nighttime workout works for you, there’s no reason to give it up. With a few simple tweaks you can feel free to get your heart rate up late at night without worrying about sleep-related consequences.
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