What Time Of Day Do You Exercise?

Even though I know exercise is very important to weight loss, I didn't exercise. The real truth is when I first started on my weight loss journey, I was too over weight to exercise. An even bigger truth is I hate exercising. But the time finally has come that I want to start exercising.


For the last two weeks I've been exercising 30 minutes a day on the Gazelle. I go about 2.5 miles and burn about 275 calories. But all of a sudden, I noticed I haven't been sleeping at night which was so frustrating for me. I love my sleep plus not sleeping does cause weight gain.


I've been exercising in the evening and last night I exercised later than normal, it was 9:30 PM when I started. I had a rough night. I don't think I ever went to sleep until around 6 AM. It occurred to me maybe exercising late in the evening could effect sleep, so I did some research this morning. And yes, it definitely does effect your sleep.

According to research presented at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies' annual meeting a few years a go, participants, on average, slept 42 minutes fewer when they exercised the day before than when they were not active during the day. This may indicate that people who habitually exercise may experience less sleep at night despite the increased exertion during the day.

Even though sleep time may decrease in people who are physically active, the Mayo Clinic reports that the quality of sleep is improved when people exercise. It can also help people fall asleep faster at night, reducing sleep problems. This is more beneficial to your body when you exercise earlier in the day rather than close to bedtime.

Here is another important reason you should not exercise right before bedtime. Exercise in general, causes the body temperature to increase, and it can remain that way for up to six hours, according to the National Sleep Foundation. It is when the body temperature drops that people tend to become sleepy. If you exercise and then go to bed before your body temperature drops, you may struggle to fall asleep. If you exercise earlier in the day and the body has time to cool off, you will have more success falling asleep.

Effective immediately, I'm changing my exercise scheduled to 11 AM instead of before bedtime.

Until Next Time .... Exercise early in the day!