Heart: The key to better sleep?

Have you slept better because you exercised during the day? If you have wondered what is the connection between sleep and exercise, let us find out.

Many people believe that exercising causes fatigue. The fatigue then makes the body want to catch up. You sleep better as a result.

But the truth might surprise you.

When you exercise, it has a beneficial effect on your heart. Done well, exercise results in strengthening of the heart muscles.

It improves nitric oxide, increases the dilation of your blood vessels, all of which improves blood circulation.

So how does this help with sleep?

We have spoken before about the phases of sleep. Typically, you should have five cycles of sleep with five stages within each sleep cycle. Simplified, you need at least fifty percent of that time to be spent in deep sleep.

But here is the kicker. The slower your heart beat, the better the quality of your deep sleep.

Which is where exercise comes into play.

The better the quality and duration of your exercise, the slower your heart beat will be when you sleep. Your heart is being trained during the day to be more efficient. It will play out at night when you are sleeping.

So, your ability to get more deep sleep is directly impacted by your exercise. Because you made your heart stronger, not because you are tired. In fact, chronic fatigue negatively affects the quality of your sleep.

So what is your goal?

It is to make your cardiovascular (heart) circulatory (lung) capacity better. The better both are, the slower your heart will pump, improving the quality of your sleep.

So before you turn to the zillion supplements constantly being peddled to improve sleep, focus on your exercise.

Yes walk! Walk more, walk for longer. It will improve your sleep without causing fatigue.

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