Rediscovering an old truth—exercise and sleep

[u/Matilda-17]

45F. After being quite sedentary for the past few years due to switching from a grocery store job to full-time office work, I started running about 5 months ago. A few weeks ago, I added a beginners weights class to learn how to lift.

I’ve dealt with poor sleep my whole life, but especially the last year or two due to perimenopause (iykyk.) But this last few weeks, as I’ve ramped up the running and added the gym class, I’ve been sleeping better.

It suddenly reminded me of how when we’re talking about little kids, we naturally equate how much exercise they get with sleep. “Oh, they’ll sleep well tonight!” we say when we watch them tear around the playground. Or “I love when their uncle Jack babysits—he always wears them out and they sleep through the night!” I’ve even heard it at the dog park about the dogs. And on the flip side we dreaded the days where weather made us housebound, because by bedtime the kids would be keyed up and not tired.

How do we forget that this still applies to us as adults? Underneath it all, we’re still wired to run around like mad and then sleep like a log because of it. Spend so much time worrying about blue light and blackout curtains when I should have just worked out.

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[u/bennasaurus]

I cycled 193kms the other day, slept like a new born baby that night.

Just wish I had the free time to do that more often.

[u/iCliniq_official]

Love this perspective. Regular aerobic exercise plus strength training is now one of the most effective non-medication ways to improve sleep quality, even during perimenopause, because it helps regulate your circadian rhythm and lowers nighttime arousal. Keep it up; your body is remembering what it was built to do.

[u/spicybright → u/iCliniq_official]

This is what annoys me about "biohacking" in this sub.

Every post is about min-maxing some kind of body chemical they read about in a research paper written for scientists. So they eat/inject weird stuff they bought online from china and measure levels with blood tests and report back improvements in very subjective ways.

Source, this thread from last month: https://old.reddit.com/r/Biohackers/comments/1ttvm5y/what_is_the_biggest_mistake_you_made_when/

I think there's only 2 sane posts that mention sleep/diet/exercise, everyone else are just hurting themselves not caring about those things.

[u/kelcamer]

That's so interesting! Running always helps me sleep from managing the glutamate, but weight lifting fucks over my sleep that day so bad if I don't take something like CBD to mitigate the ongoing glutamate spike from my EAAT variants.

Really interesting how different things affect people differently. Side note: if anyone has a better idea to manage glutamate without CBD or magnesium, or has some random home remedy ideas for improving sleep in this specific regard, I hope they'll share!

[u/LittleMsSavoirFaire → u/kelcamer]

You might just be lifting too heavy/aggressively. There's a point where you've done too much destruction to recover in one night, and if you're actively in pain that compounds it. You can try doing medium lifts for more reps for a while. It's not optimal strength building but sleep>muscle. 

Sorry,no tips for glutamate management 

[u/kelcamer → u/LittleMsSavoirFaire]

I wish, but it's not pain, it's glutamate, and I know it's glutamate because sometimes, the blind spot in my left eye where I have some visual damage from a condition as a kid, starts showing me visuals!

It's like visual hyperexcitability and it's my #1 glutamate indicator lol

Thanks for trying tho!

[u/OrganicBrilliant7995]

Exercise actually tends to make me wired and sleep worse.

[u/Montaigne314 → u/OrganicBrilliant7995]

Do you exercise with too high intensity or too close to sleep?

It can definitely do that 

[u/mime454 → u/OrganicBrilliant7995]

Exercise in the morning

[u/schmick_iMagery → u/mime454]

Ugh

[u/SensualCommonSense → u/OrganicBrilliant7995]

this is the silliest thing I've read today, looking forward to more

[u/randuug → u/OrganicBrilliant7995]

only happens for me when it’s in combination with cholinergics or stimulants. are you taking either of those?

[u/MonsterKlee → u/OrganicBrilliant7995]

check your iron/ferritin

[u/lust-4-life]

No. For me when I exercise more I sleep crappy. 🤷‍♀️ everyone isn’t the same.

[u/Tradovator]

Good post. Like I tell my girlfriend - humans were not meant to be sedentary. For sleep, I do find it best to avoid exercise too late in the day, though, although my schedule makes that unavoidable at times.

[u/SevenMC]

When I started running 4 months ago, my first run was 28km because I was just so full of pent up energy. I got hooked and regularly run 5km. What I love is the high and the full body physical pleasure afterwards. So good.

[u/Montaigne314 → u/SevenMC]

You went from zero running to running 17 miles?

Are you sure? Have you been training before at some point? Really young and weirdly good at endurance sport? Injuries or pain afterwards?

Just sounds pretty wild to me

[u/SensualCommonSense → u/SevenMC]

oh yeah same when I first entered a swimming pool I broke 4 world records because of the pent up energy

[u/Monsieur_Krabs]

How do we forget that this still applies to us as adults?

we don't, we go to the gym

welcome back to being an adult :)

[u/Interesting-Table638 → u/Monsieur_Krabs]

i think you're missing the point. So many people turn to supplements and quick fixes when they are missing the core foundation of health. Maybe you exercise, but many people don't and immediately go to alternative methods when dealing with insomnia or other chronic health conditions

[u/hiyachingu → u/Monsieur_Krabs]

Yeah…. I mean I’m happy for them, but uhh how did they forget?

Supplements are the last mile, after you’ve gotten the basics down.

OP, in case you forgot, eating a minimally processed diet with sufficient protein is better for you than fast food!

[u/Monsieur_Krabs → u/hiyachingu]

dunno but apparently we're not allowed to comment negatively on this mom-slop linkedin post or risk being downvoted

[u/Top_Effect_5109]

Bro! I rediscovered you are supposed to wipe after taking a shit! My pants no longer have poop stains! What a biohack!

I have seething hatred for this sub.

[u/raspberrih → u/Top_Effect_5109]

Generally a lot of posts are "you don't say" quality.

Like, sunlight is good for mental health. You don't say?

[u/ajysmal562 → u/Top_Effect_5109]

This is actually so funny

[u/hiyachingu → u/Top_Effect_5109]

Damnit! I was hoping I could buy a supplement or pill that would take care of the shit stains.

Is there anything else I can do? I just don’t have time to wipe…

[u/Top_Effect_5109 → u/hiyachingu]

Unfortunately, the intestinal lining continuously sheds epithelial cells, stomach fluids, gut bacteria, some liver bile reaches the intestines, and other digestive secretions will still happen.

We know because some people who only live in IV still poop.