Does Lifting Weights Enhance Sleep?

Hopefully you have realized by now that sleep is crucial if you want a premium body. But let’s pretend for a moment that you didn’t care about your physique or don’t put much emphasis on your health & wellness.

Does getting enough sleep still matter?

Yes! 

It 100% plays a crucial role on your health and wellness, and getting enough sleep is crucial for optimal health and to avoid disease!

In fact, short sleep duration actually increases the likelihood of experiencing stroke, myocardial infarctions, congestive heart failure [1], impaired glucose tolerance [2], increased cortisol as well as depression and anxiety [3].  

These outcomes above may have long-term negative effects on health and potentially cause the development of diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and hypertension.

It’s true that the amount of sleep is important, but the quality of sleep is also very crucial.

Without going into the details of the sleep cycle, I think it’s important to note that evidence indicates that deep sleep plays a major role in physiological restoration, especially in relation to cardiovascular and endocrine function [4].  

Without deep sleep your body cannot fully repair itself both physically and cognitively to the fullest extent. The lack of deep sleep causes hormonal disruption which can eventually lead a diseased state.

In addition, too much stress and anxiety also is a major contributor to disrupted sleep or lack of sleep. This further exacerbates the issue because then you have an increase in cortisol due to lack of sleep and also due to the psychological stress/anxiety.

It’s generally accepted that performing regular aerobic exercise can decrease the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and improve sleep quality.

However, did you know that resistance training may have an even more potent effect on the quality of your sleep?

That’s right, the added benefits of performing resistance exercise make this mode of exercise an even higher priority for certain populations (e.g. college students).  

A recent study investigated the acute effects of timing of resistance exercise on sleep architecture in healthy college students while simultaneously determining the effects on nocturnal blood pressure [5].  

Major findings:

• The timing of resistance exercise didn’t negatively affect the average night time blood pressure or deep sleep.
• Performing resistance exercise at any time of the day enhances the ability to stay asleep as compared with not performing resistance exercise.  
• Resistance exercise also increased the ability to stay asleep.    

This research paves the way for the use of resistance training as a means of enhancing sleep quality in people that may suffer from disturbed sleep.  

Some people can’t perform aerobic exercise due to their particular limitations.

However resistance exercise can be done by anyone if performed correctly.
It’s very clear from research that there are numerous benefits of resistance exercise! 

Well, let’s add enhanced sleep quality to the list of these benefits!

From this research, people can limit the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and depression, simply by incorporating resistance training into their week.

If sleep is still an issue and you are looking to get quality, deep sleep then I highly recommend RESTED AF.

This is a key supplement backed by research proven ingredients to help you get sound, deep quality sleep so you can function at your mental and physical best.

References:
1.    Aggarwal S, Loomba RS, Arora RR, Molnar J. Associations between sleep duration and prevalence of cardiovascular events. Clin Cardiol. 2013;36(11):671-676.
2.    Spiegel K, Leproult R, Van Cauter E. Impact of sleep debt on metabolic and endocrine function. Lancet. 1999;354(9188):1435-1439.
3.    Chapman DP, Presley-Cantrell LR, Liu Y, Perry GS, Wheaton AG, Croft JB. Frequent insufficient sleep and anxiety and depressive disorders among U.S. community dwellers in 20 states, 2010. Psychiatr Serv. 2013;64(4):385-387.
4.    Dijk DJ. Regulation and functional correlates of slow wave sleep. J Clin Sleep Med. 2009;5(2 Suppl):S6-15.
5.    Alley JR, Mazzochi JW, Smith CJ, Morris DM, Collier SR. Effects of resistance exercise timing on sleep architecture and nocturnal blood pressure. J Strength Cond Res. 2015;29(5):1378-1385.