Thread: Workout before sleep?

Discovery Health "Exercise and Sleep"

Exercising vigorously right before bed or within about three hours of your bedtime can actually make it harder to fall asleep. This surprises many people; it's often thought that a good workout before bed helps you feel more tired. In actuality, vigorous exercise right before bed stimulates your heart, brain and muscles -- the opposite of what you want at bedtime. It also raises your body temperature right before bed, which, you'll soon discover, is not what you want.

I sometimes do pushups before I go to sleep, but I'm pretty weak so usually 10-30 and thats it. Not the same effect as a full workout. I also do yoga before going to sleep sometimes and this does work well for increasing the chances of lucidity. It increases bloodflow and makes you more alert while relaxing you at the same time.

I would say if you think it seems like a good idea try it out and if it doesn't work then just don't do it in the future. Maybe do it on the weekend when you don't have to worry about waking up early.

For me, working out before sleep is BAD. It increases blood flow too much. The same goes for watching TV because it stresses the eyes. The best for me is doing the same 15 minute ritual immediately before going to bed (read, brush teeth, set alarm, change). And going to sleep around the same time helps tremendously. I need to avoid movement as much as possible while in bed or else too much blood flow, and I noticed that deep breaths are good for relaxing but bad for falling asleep. Just natural-sized breaths are best. As for the mental aspect of the falling asleep process, I would say analysis is my worst enemy. Just wherever my mind likes to wander then is the best place to think of.

Yea, I've always been told to workout at the lastest about 4 hours before bed. If you workout too close to bed time, your more likely to have trouble falling asleep. But maybe you can do a few pushups during a wbtb to get your mind a little more awake hahah.

Eh, I dunno...if you want to wake up your mind, you could try solving a puzzle. Lateral Thinking Puzzles are fun and make you think outside the box.

Damn mario, can you actually do those in the middle of the night? I would just sit there like durrrrrrrrrrrrr..... and fall back asleep.

I've been thinking about doing basic arithmetic problems when I wake up, but I always spend too long dream journaling and have to go back to sleep just so I have time to have some LDs before I have to get up.

What I do is come up with three plausible solutions per puzzle (if I can), but I'll only do maybe 3 at most. Gets the juices pumping, so you aren't going durrrrr by the end of it.

I just can hardly do those in the day. I come up with solutions but there never right.

Some puzzles are more flexible than others. Finding high-quality puzzles can be tricky. Below are two of my favorites.

Gertrude was not sick. She had no weapon, and knew no form of martial art. When she entered the plane, she unwittingly killed everyone aboard. How is this possible?

A man is found alone locked in a room hanging from a noose with a puddle below him. The room has no furniture, no windows, and one door. Solve.