Tuesday's Health Report: Healthy waking habits can lead to a healthy sleep schedule
BATON ROUGE — If you find yourself tossing and turning at night, not able to get a good night's sleep, what you do during the day may be the key.
Getting more exercise and being active can help.
"In the short term, exercise boosts our wake drive a little bit. But in the long term, meaning over the course of the day, exercise is going to boost our sleep drive as well,” Alicia Roth, a sleep psychologist, said.
Experts say any type of physical activity may help with insomnia. Whether it's cardio, strength training or simply walking your dog, consistent movement each day is important.
A recent study found people who were regularly active were 55% more likely to be normal sleepers. The time of day you exercise does not matter too much, but you want to avoid strenuous activity at least an hour before bed.
And even though exercise can help, there may be other issues keeping you from good sleep.
"Any sleep problem, unfortunately, is very multidimensional, right? There's a lot that goes into having a sleep problem, so there's never going to be like one thing that cures your sleep issues. It's probably going to be a mix of things that you change or a mix of new habits that you develop,” Roth said.
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If you do have consistent sleep problems, it is often best to seek help from an expert.