Why there is insomnia after exercise and how to fight it
Health / / December 19, 2019
After a hard workout you are very tired, but sleep is not. You tormented for several hours, but a strange excitement in my head does not allow you to sleep. Find out why this is happening and how to deal with insomnia after playing sports.
What causes insomnia
A hard workout or competition - stress to the body. Exercise raises heart rate and body temperature, increased sweating, and has a stimulating effect on the nervous and endocrine systems, increase the secretion of cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline. The heavier the load, the longer the stimulating effect.
Increased cortisol levels
Any exercise increases levels of cortisol, a stress hormone called, and there is nothing wrong: it increases the body's adaptation to positive stress. If the load is too heavy, and the cortisol level is not time to fall, it may cause insomnia.
In normal cortisol level depends on the time of day. He rises in the morning to get you to wake up, and reaches a peak after about 30 minutes after waking up.
Then, cortisol levels gradually decreasing throughout the day and in the evening, before going to bed, it is very low. But if in the evening you go to the gym and encounter unusual stress, your cortisol level rises sharply and did not have time to fall to the point where you go to bed.
Increases the level of adrenaline and noradrenaline
Intense muscular work in training increases the secretion of adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones affect the central nervous system, responsible for the vigor and activity.
Once you've adrenaline level drops quite rapidly and noradrenaline remains elevated for a long time. StudyFollow-Up Alterations of Catecholamine Hormones after an Intensive Physical Activity. 2011 revealed that norepinephrine levels may remain elevated for 48 hours after a workout.
Febrifacient
Body temperature is subject to circadian rhythms and changes during the day. During sleep, it falls a little, and the time of awakening begins to rise.
StudyThe relationship between insomnia and body temperatures. confirms that some types of insomnia, such as when you wake up in the middle of the night and can not sleep, associated with dysregulation of the body temperature.
If you had a long endurance training or competition, which lasted 4-5 hours, it may take time to body temperature again dropped.
dehydration occurs
If during training or during competition you do not drink enough water, dehydration can occur. Among other negative effects of dehydration reduces levels of melatonin - the hormone that regulates circadian rhythms and is responsible for sleep.
If there is insufficient water tryptophan - amino acid, which is formed of melatonin - hardly enters the brain, liver and is also used as an antioxidant. This reduces the production of melatonin, which can lead to insomnia.
How to avoid insomnia
Perform breathing exercises after training
breathing techniques We have proven effective in dealing with stress. To reduce the level of cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline, perform the following breathing exercise immediately after training:
- Choose a quiet place, sit on a mat with your back straight or lie on your back.
- Set a timer for five minutes, relax, close your eyes.
- Inhale on four counts, inflating the abdomen first and then the chest.
- Exhale on six accounts, letting the air out of my chest first, and then from the belly.
If you are uncomfortable to breathe for four and six bills, choose a comfortable rhythm for himself, such as three or five or six or eight accounts. The main thing that was a long exhalation breaths.
Watch for breathing and try not to go into my thoughts. It is a kind of meditation, which helps you quickly remove the excitement after the workout.
Take a cool shower
After training, take a cool bath or wipe towel soaked in cold water to lower the body temperature.
Also, do not forget to drink during and after exercise to prevent dehydration.
Place a suitable temperature in the bedroom
StudyEffects of thermal environment on sleep and circadian rhythm. It showed that the effects of heat from the environment negatively affects the slow phase of sleep.
So be sure to turn on the air conditioner in the bedroom to sleep in a cool room. at room temperature should be about 20 degrees.
Get rid of stress
If you come to heavy training after a busy day, your body gets a double whammy, and If the voltage drops and the next day, the stress becomes chronic, it is bad for body.
So, try to eliminate stress in everyday life, learn to relax and use breathing techniques, meditation, positive thinking.
Just wait until the body adapts
In spite of the increased levels of cortisol and adrenaline during exercise, many people go in for sports in the evenings after work and sleep without problems.
Insomnia comes only after unusually heavy loads: the competition, the transition to a new level of training, the first training session after a long absence. After only one or two sessions your body adapts to the new loads, and sleep problems disappear.