Will exercise help my insomnia?

If you've been dealing with insomnia you've probably wondered at some point if you should be exercising a certain way to make sleep happen?

It's a fairly reasonable question.  Exercise is one of the best things we can do for our health, physical or otherwise and it can certainly influence our sleep. 

However, while exercise is amazing for your health… it can become a problem for insomnia if you're using it as a means to make sleep happen.

The main paradox of insomnia is the harder we try to chase sleep, the harder it is for sleep to happen. 

It can be helpful to look at the two levers of insomnia:

1. Sleep Drive - The "gas" - The only thing that can help us sleep is our sleep drive

2. Hyperarousal - The "brake" - The very uncomfortable, wiry feeling that we get when we put pressure on ourselves to make sleep happen because we have learned to see wakefulness at night as a threat. 

Exercise (along with supplements, gadgets, soothing sounds, etc.) can't force you to sleep for the simple reason that we can't force sleep.  The more we try to use exercise as a means to avoid wakefulness the more we reinforce the idea that wakefulness is "wrong". 

What is the best exercise for insomnia?

Hands down the best exercise for insomnia is the kind that you actually feel like doing.  

Only you can decide what this is but it might be:

• Walking

• Weight lifting

• Rock climbing

• Yoga

• Swimming

Because the real question isn't "Which exercise is best for sleep?" but rather "How do I stop organizing my life around sleep?"

One of the simplest but favorite insomnia principles I teach is:

Sleep should serve our life. Life should not serve our sleep. 

This matters because exercise can go two very different directions:

1) Exercise as a life-enriching habit (helpful)

When you exercise because you enjoy it and because you like how you feel after, because it’s part of who you are, then it’s great! Your attention naturally shifts toward living.

2) Exercise as a “sleep tool” (not so helpful)

If you exercise hoping it will make you sleep, it can quietly and quickly become another sleep effort.  Sleep efforts tend to increase preoccupation, tracking, and pressure.

That’s the difference between:

• “I’m working out because I love training.” v.s.

• “I’m working out so I can knock myself out tonight.”

Same workout. Completely different effect in the brain.

A quick litmus test

If you want to know whether exercise has become a sleep effort, ask yourself:

• Before you lift those weights do you feel anxious, like you need it to work?

• After you do it do you think things like: “That didn’t work,” or “I did this and still didn’t sleep”?

When you start making those connections, that’s a sign the intent has shifted into sleep-chasing.

So the “best” exercise is whatever one that keeps your intent clean: Do it for you, but not as a way for you to hedge your odds with your sleep.

When is the best time to exercise if you have insomnia?

The best time to exercise is simply whatever time suites your life the best.

Insomnia can get sneaky and encourage people to start rearranging everything around sleep:

• forcing early morning workouts they hate

• avoiding evening plans

• micromanaging timing because they read a “perfect” circadian routine online

But if your schedule becomes another way to “protect sleep,” it can reinforce the idea that sleep is fragile and that therefore you have to manage it.

The following question can be a really powerful north star:

“What would I do if I didn’t care about getting sleep tonight?” 

If you’d naturally exercise in the morning because you love starting your day that way then that seems like as good as time as any to work out. 

If you’d naturally exercise after work because that’s when you feel best, that's also great!

The common insomnia trap is switching your workout time purely out of fear.

Your “Late Night Workouts” piece nails the distinction: lots of things can cause temporary sleep disruption, but sleep disruption isn’t the same as insomnia. 

Insomnia is more about the relationship we have with sleep: when we crave sleep, monitor it, and making daily decisions around protecting it.

Does exercising before bed help with insomnia?

Well, it doesn’t matter nearly as much as you think it does.

The issue usually isn’t whether or not we workout. It’s whether or not we're making adjustments around our lives out of fear to make sleep happen. 

So if you genuinely like working out at night, and it fits your life, you don’t need to stop.

Live your life first  and let sleep follow. 

The “win” isn’t perfectly timing your workouts.

The win is getting to a place where, if sleep is lighter some nights, you can shrug and say:

“Oh well.” 

That’s how the brain relearns safety.

Conclusion

The only exercise that can help you with your insomnia is whatever exercise you would do if insomnia wasn't a part of your life.

So to keep it simple

• Choose exercise you enjoy (if you want)

• Do it at a time that best fits your life.

• If late workouts work for you, keep them.