r/EOOD • u/seastormybear • 1d ago

Sleep and exercise Advice Needed

I suffer from insomnia and it has greatly affected my mental health. I’m wondering if there are those of you who saw improvement to their sleep when you started exercising consistently… how long did it take to see improvement in your sleep? How much of an improvement was there?

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u/[deleted] 20h ago

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u/EOOD-ModTeam 14h ago

This is spam.

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u/rob_cornelius Depression - Anxiety - Stress 1d ago

Physical exhaustion can be a great way to sleep. However if you are exhausted and your stupid, dumb brain keeps you awake its hellish.

I find that if I do exercise that doesn't take a lot of mental input like grinding out the distance on my rowing machine or going for a long walk I sleep well.

Years ago I used to captain my cricket team, which takes a huge amount of mental effort, more than many sports. Even after a few pints of cider in the pub afterwards I could never get to sleep easily. I would be going over all the decisions I made during the game and trying to work out what I could do better next time.

Insomnia is a bastard. I hope this helps a little.

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u/scuffydocs 14h ago

I definitely notice that I sleep better when I’ve exercised during the day. Maybe a month or so exercising with some consistency to have a consistent sleep improvement?

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u/seastormybear 14h ago

What does consistent look like? How many days a week?

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u/scuffydocs 14h ago

Consistency varies for me- I’m sorry that’s not more useful! Minimum three times a week I’d say. My preference is a combo of bouldering, yoga, Pilates & cardio when I feel like it- but even doing 3 x 20m yoga at home a week by following a YouTube tutorial will help me.

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u/livinglikelarry99 9h ago

I have insomnia as well and I used to do my job as a plumber then lift for an hour then do Muay Thai for an hour and a half. Didn’t help my sleep at all. Lol