Hitting the treadmill today won’t help you sleep tonight; it takes 4 months to kick in

Exercise is no quick cure for insomnia

 

CHICAGO, ILL, USA (August 15, 2013) –  Exercise is a common prescription for insomnia. But spending 45 minutes on the treadmill one day won’t translate into better sleep that night, according to new Northwestern Medicine® research.

"If you have insomnia you won’t exercise yourself into sleep right away," said lead study author Kelly Glazer Baron, a clinical psychologist and director of the behavioral sleep program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "It’s a long-term relationship. You have to keep at it and not get discouraged."

 

This is the first long-term study to show aerobic exercise during the day does not result in improved sleep that same night when people have existing sleep problems. Most studies on the daily effects of exercise and sleep have been done with healthy sleepers.

 

The study also showed people exercise less following nights with worse sleep.

 

"Sleeping poorly doesn’t change your aerobic capacity, but it changes people’s perception of their exertion," Baron said. "They feel more exhausted."

 

The study will be published August 15 in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. Baron conducted the study with coauthor Kathryn Reid, research associate professor of neurology at Feinberg and senior author Phyllis Zee, M.D., the Benjamin and Virginia T. Boshes Professor of Neurology at Feinberg and director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

 

"This new study shows exercise and sleep affect each other in both directions: regular long-term exercise is good for sleep but poor sleep can also lead to less exercise. So in the end, sleep still trumps everything as far as health is concerned," Zee said.

 

Baron decided to analyze the daily effect of exercise after hearing her patients with insomnia complain the exercise she recommended didn’t help them right away.

 

"They’d say, ‚I exercised so hard yesterday and didn’t sleep at all,’" Baron said. "The prevailing thought is that exercise improves sleep, but I thought it probably wasn’t that simple for people with insomnia."

 

Why does it take time for exercise to impact sleep?

 

"Patients with insomnia have a heightened level of brain activity and it takes time to re-establish a more normal level that can facilitate sleep," Zee said. "Rather than medications, which can induce sleep quickly, exercise may be a healthier way to improve sleep because it could address the underlying problem."

 

The study participants were older women, who have the highest prevalence of insomnia. Exercise is an optimum approach to promote sleep in an older population because drugs can cause memory impairment and falls.

 

Baron thinks the results also could apply to men because there is no evidence of gender differences in behavioral treatments for insomnia.

 

For the study, Baron performed an analysis of data from a 2010 clinical trial (by the same group of Northwestern researchers on the current paper) that demonstrated the ability of aerobic exercise to improve sleep, mood and vitality over a 16-week period in middle-age-to-older adults with insomnia. She and colleagues examined the daily sleep data from 11 women ages 57 to 70.

 

The key message is that people with sleep disturbances have to be persistent with exercise.

 

"People have to realize that even if they don’t want to exercise, that’s the time they need to dig in their heels and get themselves out there," Baron said. "Write a note on your mirror that says ‚Just Do It!‘ It will help in the long run."

 

 

  • This study was supported by National Institute of Health grants T32AG020506 and P01 AG11412 from the National Institute on Aging; 1K23HL109110 and K23 HL091508 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; and grants M01 RR00048 and UL1RR025741 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science.

 

 


 

Northwestern University , 15.08.2013 (hB).

MEDICAL NEWS

IU School of Medicine researchers develop blood test for anxiety
COVID-19 pandemic increased rates and severity of depression, whether people…
COVID-19: Bacterial co-infection is a major risk factor for death,…
Regenstrief-led study shows enhanced spiritual care improves well-being of ICU…
Hidden bacteria presents a substantial risk of antimicrobial resistance in…

SCHMERZ PAINCARE

Hydromorphon Aristo® long ist das führende Präferenzpräparat bei Tumorschmerz
Sorgen und Versorgen – Schmerzmedizin konkret: „Sorge als identitätsstiftendes Element…
Problem Schmerzmittelkonsum
Post-Covid und Muskelschmerz
Kopfschmerz bei Übergebrauch von Schmerz- oder Migränemitteln

DIABETES

Wie das Dexom G7 abstrakte Zahlen mit Farben greifbar macht…
Diabetes mellitus: eine der großen Volkskrankheiten im Blickpunkt der Schmerzmedizin
Suliqua®: Einfacher hin zu einer guten glykämischen Kontrolle
Menschen mit Diabetes während der Corona-Pandemie unterversorgt? Studie zeigt auffällige…
Suliqua® zur Therapieoptimierung bei unzureichender BOT

ERNÄHRUNG

Positiver Effekt der grünen Mittelmeerdiät auf die Aorta
Natriumaufnahme und Herz-Kreislaufrisiko
Tierwohl-Fleisch aus Deutschland nur mäßig attraktiv in anderen Ländern
Diät: Gehirn verstärkt Signal an Hungersynapsen
Süßigkeiten verändern unser Gehirn

ONKOLOGIE

Strahlentherapie ist oft ebenso effizient wie die OP: Neues vom…
Zanubrutinib bei chronischer lymphatischer Leukämie: Zusatznutzen für bestimmte Betroffene
Eileiter-Entfernung als Vorbeugung gegen Eierstockkrebs akzeptiert
Antibiotika als Störfaktor bei CAR-T-Zell-Therapie
Bauchspeicheldrüsenkrebs: Spezielle Diät kann Erfolg der Chemotherapie beeinflussen

MULTIPLE SKLEROSE

Multiple Sklerose: Aktuelle Immunmodulatoren im Vergleich
Neuer Biomarker für Verlauf von Multipler Sklerose
Multiple Sklerose: Analysen aus Münster erhärten Verdacht gegen das Epstein-Barr-Virus
Aktuelle Daten zu Novartis Ofatumumab und Siponimod bestätigen Vorteil des…
Multiple Sklerose durch das Epstein-Barr-Virus – kommt die MS-Impfung?

PARKINSON

Meilenstein in der Parkinson-Forschung: Neuer Alpha-Synuclein-Test entdeckt die Nervenerkrankung vor…
Neue Erkenntnisse für die Parkinson-Therapie
Cochrane Review: Bewegung hilft, die Schwere von Bewegungssymptomen bei Parkinson…
Technische Innovationen für eine maßgeschneiderte Parkinson-Diagnostik und Therapie
Biomarker und Gene: neue Chancen und Herausforderungen für die Parkinson-Diagnose…