Exercise improves sleep and is essential for good health

Sleep is a basic human need and is essential for good health, good quality of life and performing well during the day. Several indicators can be used to describe sleep disturbance or sleep disorders, the main effects of sleep deprivation include physical effects (sleepiness, fatigue, and hypertension) cognitive impairment (deterioration of performance, attention, and motivation; diminishment of mental concentration and intellectual capacity and increase of the likelihood of accidents at work and during driving) and mental health complications. Inadequate rest impairs the ability to think, handle stress, to maintain a healthy immune system, and to moderate emotions, maintained total sleep deprivation is fatal in some animal species.

The day after a night of abnormal or poor sleep is whatever the cause, a disturbed day. People can fall asleep at work, at school, or when driving; feel tired; have concentration and vigilance detriments; have memory blanks; irritability; frustration; and have a higher probability of accidents or injury

What is it a sleep disorder?

A sleep disorder is a condition where a person is tired but unable to sleep. This results in a lack of sleep quality and not getting enough hours of sleep per night. It also affects the time of night when a person starts to feel tired, plus their overall health and life quality. There are many different types of sleep disorders, all with their own symptoms, causes, and treatments.

What are the most common sleep disorders?

Adults and children can be affected by sleep disorders. Children typically require more sleep than adults so sometimes, it can be harder to recognize if your child has a sleep disorder. Read on to learn more about the different types of sleeping disorders.

1. Parasomnia

Parasomnia is the name for a group of sleep disorders. These disorders include confusion arousal, sleepwalking, sleep terrors, sleep eating disorder, REM sleep behavior disorder, sleep paralysis, nightmares, bedwetting, sleep hallucinations, sleep talking, and exploding head syndrome. All of these disorders involve unwanted events or experiences when you are falling asleep or waking up.

2. Sleep Apnea

This is a disorder where breathing repeatedly stops and starts throughout the night. People who are diagnosed with sleep apnea often snore very loudly and feel tired and sluggish each day. Treatment for sleep apnea sometimes involves the use of a breathing device which is to be worn each night during sleep.

3. Insomnia

A person with insomnia struggles to both stay awake during the day and falling asleep at night. Sometimes insomnia also involves waking in the middle of the night and not being able to fall back to sleep again.

4. Hypersomnia

Hypersomnia is often referred to as excessive daytime sleepiness. This sleep disorder can also involve excessive time spent sleeping. People with this disorder typically struggle to stay awake during the daytime.

5. Narcolepsy

As one of the least common sleeping disorders, narcolepsy roughly affects only 1 in 2,200 to 3,000 people. The people who have narcolepsy often face sleep attacks, sleep paralysis, cataplexy, hallucinations, and excessive sleepiness.

6. Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)

RLS causes discomfort when falling asleep as people with this disorder get sudden urges to move their legs. Unpleasant sensations such as itching and tingling can also occur in the feet, calves, and thighs. It is said that personal habits can worsen RLS and self-help techniques can be successful in combating this sleep disorder.

7. Periodic Limb Movement Disorder (PLMD)

If you involuntarily move your limbs throughout the night you may have PLMD. This sleep disorder involves repetitive jerking and cramping of limbs during the night. The lower limbs of the body are more commonly affected. The key difference between PLMD and RLS is that RLS occurs while awake and PLMD occurs while sleeping.

8. Circadian rhythm sleep disorders

This category of sleep disorders involves conditions such as jet lag, shift work disorder, non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder, and delayed sleep-wake phase disorder. People that have one or more of these disorders tend to not sleep at what is considered normal times of the night?

9. Bruxism

Considered to be a sleep-related movement disorder, bruxism is where a person grinds their teeth throughout the night. This condition is fairly common and has many possible causes. However, the most common cause is often stress or anxiety

10. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Often referred to as ‘winter depression’, people with SAD are often most affected in the winter season and struggle with waking up in the morning, a lack of energy, the urge to sleep in the day and sleeping for longer than normal at night.

What causes sleep disorders?

Carolyn Burke says that finding the cause of sleeping issues “is one of the most important steps in addressing a sleep disorder. You would want to know what type of sleep disorder you have, but you would also want to try to find the root of the issue. Physical pain, poor sleep hygiene, stress, mental health issues, physical health issues, simply a bad mattress … the list is long and yes, in some cases, a sleep disorder could be genetic”.

If you think your mattress could be the cause of your sleeping issues, take a look at our mattress guide to see what mattress is right for you.

Women and Sleep Disorders

Women experience sleep difficulties more frequently than men.

The complex interaction between sleep and hormones causes some of the sleep disorders in women. During pregnancy, sleep levels and patterns need to change dramatically to accommodate the physical and hormonal changes taking place in a woman’s body. Possible pregnancy sleep disorders include snoring, sleep apnea, and restless leg syndrome. Sleep and menopause symptoms are also related, with many women experiencing sleep problems due to hot flushes and night sweats. Disrupted sleep and hormones that are in a state of transition can cause mood swings and depression.

Regular physical exercise activates the endocrine system and helps to reduce mood swings caused by hormonal fluctuation in women. Furthermore, relaxation techniques and breathing exercises reduce stress symptoms.

Age and sleep

Of course, a higher percentage of people older in age could have an effect on the statistics with those aged over 66 need only around 6.5 hours of sleep a night. However, those aged 2 and under will sleep on average for 14 hours, as the physical demand that growing places on them will leave them in constant need of rest. As there is a higher number of young people worldwide than there are elderly people, the fact that the data still shows a relatively low sleep average per nation is particularly worrying.

If the adults in these nations were achieving the recommended amount of sleep then the data would show a higher average, as the figures would be skewed by babies sleeping for long stretches of the day. Instead, the long periods that children sleep for has no effect on the data at all, signifying a strong likelihood that many adults achieve much, much less than their nation's nightly sleep average.

What does lack of sleep do?

We’re all aware of just how much we need sleep to function properly. Anyone who has tried to meet a deadline by staying awake the night before knows just how fragile the body is after it hasn’t achieved its accustomed rest. In fact there are a number of side-effects that occur as a result of a lack of sleep and only worsen after a long period without. A few of these include:

Irritability and a generally more negative mood

Unhappiness and depression

Low sex drive and a lack of energy

Problems with memory and retaining information

Weight gain and associated health issues

Benefits of Exercise in Sleep Disorders

• Exercise improves sleep by producing a significant rise in body temperature, followed by a compensatory drop a few hours later. The drop in body temperature, which persists for 2 to 4 hours after exercise, makes it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep.

• Exercise improves sleep by acting as a physical stressor to the body. The brain compensates for physical stress by increasing deep sleep.

• Increased flexibility with stretching: You become less flexible once you get older.

Your flexibility has an impact on your breathing muscles and the muscles that support your structure. It will be harder to breathe if muscles of the chest and abdomen are less flexible. Exercise and stretching help your breathing muscles’ flexibility which reduces snoring.

• Improved lung capacity:

If you do not exercise regularly, your lung capacity reduces over time in response to the lower need. Full breathe takes effort but the fuller the size of breath, the easier it is to breathe in your normal range. If you don’t keep your capacity up then it falls finally to a level where your full capacity is your normal breath and even normal breathing becomes forced and difficult.

• Toned muscles:

If you exercise more including breathing muscles, they become more toned. If you breathe more through your nose, it is easier to breathe through your nose and your nasal passages are less likely to collapse.

• Balanced muscles:

Due to unbalanced muscle groups, airways get collapsed and cause obstructive sleep apnea. If neck and throat muscles become unbalanced, it can lead to snoring and sleep apnea.

Exercise and stretching means more balanced muscles. Neck length and size are related to snoring. If you have a short or thick neck, you are more likely to snore

• Exercise increases the body’s production of endorphins, which create a sense of wellbeing and reduce anxiety spells that interfere in restful sleep.

• Exercise can improve sleep quality without the potential side effects of sleep medications. Sleep and Health

Effects of Sleep Deprivation

Without adequate sleep, the brain’s ability to function can quickly deteriorate. Insufficient rest can even cause hallucinations and contribute to anxiety disorders and other psychiatric problems.

Possible effects of sleep deprivation include:

• Excessive daytime sleepiness

• Fatigue

• Slower reaction times

• Irritability

• Impaired physical and mental performance

• Depression

• Heart disease

• Hypertension

• Obesity

Breathing Exercises in Sleep Disorders

Quiet Mind and Body Learning to do deep breathing exercises helps to shift the mind away from worrying thoughts. Deep breathing often feels backward to many people so it takes concentration to master. Taking slow deep breaths also sends signals to the brain that you are calm, which in turn can slow down your heart rate and nervous activity. Breathe correctly the idea is to focus on allowing your diaphragm to drop when you inhale so your lungs can fully expand. You then want to allow the diaphragm to rise as you exhale, which will compress the lungs and push the air out as you breathe out.

Nasal Breathing

Breathing through the nose is physiologically more relaxing for the body. Your nasal cavity is specially designed to warm and filter the air you inhale. The mouth does not have these same structures. Breathing through the nose allows your body to process the air more efficiently, which will slow down the activity of your heart and nervous system.

The Technique

Inhale through your nose and allow the belly to move outward. As the abdomen moves out, roomies are created for the diaphragm to drop. Then exhale through the nose and let the belly move inward so the diaphragm presses up. If you are dealing with sinus or respiratory issues, try breathing in through the nose and exhaling through pursed lips.

Focus Attention

To help slow down the mind to encourage sleep, keep your attention on the movement of the breath. Make each breath a little slower and a little deeper. With each exhale, allow your body to feel heavy and sink into the bed.

Relaxation Techniques

In the face of sleep disorders, relaxation techniques are the key to a good night’s sleep. Sleep relaxation techniques decrease the wear and tear on the mind and body and reduce stress symptoms. In general, relaxation techniques involve refocusing the attention to something calming and increasing awareness of the body.

Health Benefits of Relaxation Techniques:

• Slowing the heart rate and breathing rate

• Lowering blood pressure

• Increasing blood flow to major muscles

• Reducing muscle tension and chronic pain

• Boosting confidence to handle problems

• Improving concentration

Types of Relaxation Techniques

Autogenic relaxation: In this relaxation technique, both imagery and body awareness is used to reduce stress. Repeat words or suggestions in the mind to relax and reduce muscle tension. Imagine a peaceful place and then focus on controlled, relaxing breathing, slowing the heart rate, or feeling different physical sensations, such as relaxing each arm or leg one by one. Progressive muscle relaxation: Start by tensing and relaxing the muscles in the toes and progressively work up to the neck and head. Tense the muscles for at least 5 seconds, then relax for 30seconds and repeat. Focus on slowly tensing and then relaxing each muscle group, becoming more aware of physical sensations. It doesn’t necessarily matter which relaxation technique one chooses, only that to practice relaxation regularly to reap benefits. These techniques are skilled, and the ability to relax improves with practice. Don’t let the effort to practice these techniques become yet another stressor.

Sleep, as a physiological state, is necessary for the wellbeing of the living organism. Its interactions with daytime activities are profound and they determine the global equilibrium between these two fundamental states: sleep and wakefulness. Sleep normality and sleep quality concepts are used in the everyday life, although it is often difficult to state clearly how to define them. Sleep structure is changing over time and this progressive evolution is quite variable from one individual to another. The sleep quality concept may also considerably vary from one person to another as subjective expectancy is highly variable and complex. Therefore, sleep disturbance has often to reconsider on an individual basis as far as sleep quality is concerned. There exist obvious indicators of disturbed sleep structure as well as changes in main physiological functions during sleep. However, the significance of these modifications in terms of global health is often disputable. We certainly need to focus more our interest on the possible cumulative effects of long-term sleep disturbance, in order to be able to prevent populations against more or less well-identified disturbance sources.