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 Insomnia affects between 40 and 80 percent of overweight and obese
men, said Serge Brand of the Center for Affective, Stress and Sleep
Disorders at the Psychiatric Clinics of the University of Basel in
Switzerland, who was not part of the new study.
Regular aerobic exercise training reduces sedentary time, reduces
appetite, improves cardiovascular performance and increases
self-esteem and self-efficacy, Brand told Reuters Health by email.
It also increases sleep need for recovering and improving body
tissues such as muscles, tendons, and organs related to respiration
and blood flow, and it improves mood, he added.
Senior author Sulin Cheng of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China
and the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland and coauthors recruited
45 men ages 30 to 65. Almost all were overweight or obese, with at
least three months of insomnia symptoms like difficulty falling
asleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, early-morning awakenings or
nonrestorative sleep.
Cheng did not respond to a request for comment.
Half of the men were randomly selected to attend aerobic exercise
sessions for six months, including one to five sessions per week of
30 to 60 minutes with a trainer. The number of sessions and
intensity of exercise depended on fitness level as assessed by a
test before the study began. The remaining men maintained their
usual behaviors.
The researchers used bed sensors, sleep diaries, questionnaires,
activity and diet diaries and body measurements to track
participants’ progress.
After six months, the exercise group took less time to fall asleep
and less often had difficulty falling asleep than the comparison
group. Men in the exercise group also reported fewer occasions of
waking up in the night, more efficient sleep and better sleep
quality based on how they felt in the mornings, as reported in Sleep
Medicine.
Exercise may help dampen the mental and physical “hyperarousal” that
seems to be a common feature in insomnia, with feelings of
persistently elevated heart rate, mind racing and being unable to
turn off your brain, said Christopher E. Kline, a researcher at the
University of Pittsburgh Sleep and Chronobiology Center.
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“Such regular aerobic exercise training is also suitable for women
and also for those who are not overweight,” Brand said. “People
exercising regularly improve their self-control and self-discipline,
which in turn has benefits for a general healthier lifestyle,” said
Kline, who was not involved in the study.
“It seems that endurance training such as jogging, swimming or
dancing for at least 30 minutes per day for three to five days per
week has the highest impact,” Brand said.
People who take medications to treat insomnia do not learn anything
about self-control, self-esteem and self-efficacy, he said.
“The ‘best’ option for insomnia really seems to be behavioral sleep
therapy, typically delivered as cognitive behavioral therapy,” Kline
told Reuters Health by email. “It’s a package of therapies delivered
by a trained professional that has been shown to be just as
effective as hypnotics in the short term and much more effective in
the long term.”
A long-term exercise regimen would probably be more effective than
hypnotic medications, but a single exercise session may not be as
effective as a pill, he said.
“But these pills carry so many side effects (including more and more
links to mortality), that I would recommend exercise over hypnotics
regardless of effectiveness,” Kline said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1SByRhu Sleep Medicine, online March 7, 2016.
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