Posted on 04/05/2024 9:47:38 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Consistently exercising 2–3 times a week over the long term is linked to a lower current risk of insomnia as well as the ability to clock up the recommended 6–9 hours of shut-eye every night, suggests an international 10-year study.
The researchers assessed the frequency, duration, and intensity of weekly physical activity and symptoms of insomnia, nightly sleep clocked up, and daytime sleepiness among middle-aged adults.
The 4,399 study participants (2,085 men; 2,254 women) were drawn from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey.
They had answered questions on the frequency and duration of physical activity at baseline (ECRHS II;1998–2002) and on physical activity, insomnia symptoms (Basic Nordic Sleep Questionnaire; scale 1–5), sleep duration and daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale) 10 years later (ECRHS III; 2011–14).
Over the 10-year period, 37% (1,601) of participants were persistently inactive; 18% (775) became physically active; 20% (881) became inactive; and 25% (1,082) were persistently active.
After adjusting for age, sex, weight (BMI), smoking history, and study center, those who were persistently active were significantly (42%) less likely to find it difficult to fall asleep, 22% less likely to have any symptoms of insomnia, and 40% less likely to report 2 or 3 (37% less likely) insomnia symptoms.
Insomnia symptoms were also independently associated with age, female gender, and weight.
As for total nightly hours of sleep and daytime sleepiness, after adjusting for age, sex, weight, smoking history, and study center, persistently active participants were most likely to be normal sleepers.
The persistently active were significantly (55%) more likely to be normal sleepers, significantly less likely (29%) to be short (6 hours or less), and 52% less likely to be long sleepers (9 hours or more). And those who became active were 21% more likely to be normal sleepers than those who were persistently inactive.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
They were much more likely to be or become normal sleepers.
I’ve read the ideal time for exercise is about 4-5 hours before bedtime. Although, it probably helps to simply exercise.
I lift weights at least 3X a week, and still get the GD 0400 wake up and maybe get back to sleep thing.
Almost never sleep through that 0400 thing, unless I am dehydrated enough to not have to wake and piss.
What are you taking to help with your prostate?
Nothing other than whatever BP stuff does.
I wish I could sleep longer, but six hours is what I average.
I despise exercise. Reminds me of the dreaded gym classes in school. Doc says my 30+ round-trips up/down stairs help. Not ideal, but it’s something.
I recall that disco was good exercise, and fun — not gym-esque.
I dunno...I average 5 days a week of exercise[ and often 6 days] and can’t sleep more than 3-4hrs a night, plus an afternoon laydown for an hour.
I don’t find this to be true. I’m 76 and struggle to get even 6 hours of sleep at night. I am very active doing yard work at least 5 days a week for 2 to 3 hours a day. Yesterday I cleaned my front flower beds, lugging 9 big bags of mulch across the yard, raking leaves, and digging holes for new shrubs. It took me 6 hours. I was wide awake at 11. Finally went to bed and woke up at 4am. Today I have to power wash my fence, finish planting my green beans, and spray the weeds in my back yard. Still won’t be able to sleep tonight.
I laughed at your reference to disco, its true, that was great and fun exercise. The chuckle was thinking, dang, that was fun in college and here we are talking about it as exercise between receiving social security checks.
Gulag-ers always slept well. So there’s a positive.
That post made me LOL, for sure. You’re so right.
If this is what you have, may want to consider supplements like nettle root extract, pygeum, rye pollen extract, beta-sitosterol, and/or pumpkin seed oil.
Other options could include mangosteen powder, moringa powder, and saw palmetto.
There are plenty of health sites that can tell you more. I can say I didn't have success with the saw palmetto and pumpkin seed oil supplements I tried. I haven't trued rye pollen extract, but a loynof men have spoken very well of it.
The rest I have used and found helpful enough to never need prescriptions of any sort. There are options to reduce the prostate size, and the two best current options appear to be water ablation (Aquablation) and injection of tiny spheres over an afternoon via X-ray, which amazingly shrinks your prostate by about 1/3 over the next several weeks, and you don't have a hospital stay or general anesthesia. It simply works by blocking blood flow, starving tissue, which your body removes on its own.
I’m at the gym a solid 2 hours 5 days a week, plus bike rides and heavy gardening
Still not sleeping well.
I hadn’t heard of the tiny-sphere method of shrinking one’s prostate. I’ll have to ask my urologist about that, even though it’s pretty much irrelevant to me now. Last fall I was having severe urinary retention problems, to the extent of having to be catheterized at the ER one morning. After a negative biopsy, my urologist did a TURP (trans-urethral resection of the prostate) which worked very well. Still, it would have been nice if I could have avoided that.
She did say that OTC prostate supplements don’t work very well when BPH has progressed as far as mine had.
I run, I tire, I sleep.
I love the gym, did 14-minute bone-strengthening miles on the treadmill five days a week until gyms were locked down for covid. With little exercise, osteoporosis kicked in and I broke a knee and a year later an ankle. Just cleared by orthopedist to go back to the gym. Treadmill safer than walking around neighborhood because sidewalks have various tilt and crack problems.
My MD said it was rare for anyone my age (87) to get back to normal after those breaks. Most people require walkers or wheelchairs. I weigh 116, which probably helps and take 12 supplements every day including bone-strengthening liquid calcium-magnesium, one prescription drug.
Whether or not I’m physically active, I love to sleep. Ten hours a night works well, and for my cat too, who often sleeps with me. Two lazy girls.
When in New York City for work, on rainy or very cold days, I can walk for miles in the bowels of Grand Central or Penn Station. Once in a while, I'll walk all 10+ floors of Macy's in Herald Square, with their wooden escalators.
As a result, I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow for a solid 7 hours - unless I get to bed late and the alarm wakes me first!
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