SLEEPING BEAUTIES

IT’S well-known that exercise helps you sleep better, right? But, according to Giuseppe di Vito, Professor of Performance Medicine at UCD Institute of Sport and Health, exercise too close to bedtime and you can ruin a good night’s sleep. “One rule of thumb,” he says,” is not to do intense exercise within three hours of going to bed because this can alter your sleep patterns.” Not only can it change the length of your REM and NREM stages, but it releases stress hormones such as cortisol, noradrenaline and adrenaline which keep your body buzzing for hours afterwards. “You need a few hours to recover completely.”

And, of course, high intensity workouts — which are short and sweaty, and easy to fit into a busy day — are all the rage.

“Another effect of intense exercise,” points out Giuseppe, a former pentathlete who used to train four times a day, “is that our body temperature increases and this is not very good for sleep.” Your body temperature needs to drop by 1C to lull you to sleep.

But even those doing more moderate types of aerobic exercise would do well to fit it in early in the day, or at least before 8pm or so. “There’s evidence that those trying aerobic types of training for 120-130 minutes a week, sleep better if they exercise in the morning. If they do it closer to bedtime, their sleeping patterns get worse,” says Giuseppe. Better options for evening are yoga or a stroll.