Insomnia

It was quite ironic after joining the Better Sleep Challenge when my sleep was supposed to be better that I spent the Week 2 of the challenge tossing and turning in bed, hardly having 5 hours of sleep a day. I was actually brainstorming on what I did wrong.

Week 1 despite going to bed early, I was perpetually oversleeping and now week 2 still sleeping early, its insomnia galore. Anyways, I think I got to the root of the problem today "late workouts".

In order to get my daily exercise in for the day and because of my busy schedule, I was doing it just before bedtime. In fact I go to bed almost immediately I finish my workouts. I had to start scouting into articles today just find a solution to the problem because it was worse today. Am not really sure yet but I am not working out tonight, shifting it till tomorrow morning. I will see what happens tonight.

I sent a mail to sparkcoach today on this issue and this was what I got.

"Your Question:
Insomnia
Is there any relation between working out close to bedtime/evening and sleepless nights. I have been experiencing sleeplessness for the past week now despite sleeping as early as 10pm which I started since joining better sleep challenge. I now wake around 3am and will not sleep again till morning which is just less than the recommended sleeping hours.

Coach's Answer:
That can be a problem for some people. Exercise just before bedtime can increase arousal levels for some people, but my understanding is that this would most often make it harder to get to sleep, rather than to problems with early morning awakening. To find out if this is causing your problem, I'd suggest going a few days without the evening exercise, and see what happens. If you continue to have the problem, then check with your doctor to see what else might be going on.

Hope this helps.

-SparkPeople Coach"