If you are anything like me you basically survive off of naps and try to sneak them in whenever you can. But if you are also like me, you also like your gym time. So that leaves the ever lingering question of: is it okay to take a nap after a workout? Is it okay to go to sleep directly after working out? You might be feeling especially tired after a long work out or after a long day of work on top of that, so the temptation to take snooze after you get out of the shower is tempting, but is it doing more harm than good?
Today let’s look into whether or not you should hit the pillow after you work out!
Different Types of Workouts
First, let’s talk about the three different types of workouts you might be doing.
Aerobic Exercise uses oxygen and is most commonly known as cardio exercise. This includes activities such as running, swimming, or kick boxing among many others. This type of exercise uses large muscles and increases heart rate.
Anaerobic exercise focuses on non cardio types of work outs that help build strength and resistance. This includes lifting, sit ups, and pull ups.
Finally, flexibility exercise focuses on stretching and lengthening the muscles. This includes stretching and yoga exercise.
Every person is different and our bodies react different ways to exercise. Similarly, every work out is different as well. Believe it or not there are no definitive studies out there that tell you whether or not you should sleep after you exercise or give yourself time. Instead, all I can offer you is the theories researchers have regarding exercise and sleep.
The Pros of Sleep after Exercise
Although not greatly studied, there may be some pros to sleeping after exercise. The most important being that sleep allows the body time to repair and grow muscle tissue. This is true whether you are strength training, working on flexibility, or doing cardio. Your muscles always need time to repair after a workout. Exercise in general can also make you feel tired which helps promote sleep.
This is especially true with marathon and long distance runners. These runners tend to be extra tired when training and after their marathon runs? Why? Again, there is no definitive answer to this question. It may just be from the strain they put on their body over an extended period of time, but it may also be from the increase of hormones affected the immune system (making it work harder due to the strain) that promotes sleepiness.
Whatever the reason, sometimes athletes just need to listen to their bodies and sleep after a workout or else they’ll hit a point of exhaustion later on.
The cons of sleep after exercise
Just like there are benefits, there are also cons to sleeping immediately after working out.
Although there is no study that states whether sleeping after working out affects your metabolism, some people actually believe that taking a nap or going to bed after a workout causes you to burn fewer calories. Some people back this up saying that it’s because you stop moving around and your body doesn’t have time to gain all the benefits from working out. However, some other research backs up that you still burn plenty of calories while you sleep. So that jury is kind of out on that one.
The other big con to sleeping after exercise is that it might just mess with your sleep schedule in general. Napping isn’t always the best idea if you have problems falling asleep at night. And working out right before bedtime might affect the way you fall asleep at night. This isn’t just because you feel energized after a workout, its because exercise increases the stress hormone cortisol (which we’ve discussed here before). This can actually prevent you from feeling sleepy!
So what should you do?
I think it all depends on what you feel your body needs. If you are an extreme athlete and feel your body needs a nap after a big work out go ahead and take that nap! Just make sure to rehydrate and stretch your muscles before lying down. You don’t want to get woken up from leg cramps and Charlie horses.
If you are looking to lose weight, you might want to schedule your workouts after work but a few hours before bed that way you aren’t feeling too tired for work but that way you have plenty of time to still move around and feel all the benefits of your work out!
If you are an insomnia sufferer like me, sleep specialists suggested mild exercise five to six hours before bedtime. This is because the core body temperature increases while you are working out. When that core temperature lowers a few hours later, it triggers the body to be sleepy. I personally find that if I work out too late at night (usually after 7:30pm), it takes me a lot longer to fall asleep than it does if I work out earlier. Between 3 and 5 is usually my magical work out time. It seems to do me really well.
The important take away message from this is to listen to your own body and feel out what you think you need for yourself. Only you can decide what your body needs.
When do you like to time your work outs with your sleep schedule? Do you nap before or after working out? Let me know in the comments below.
Until next time,
Kat
Sources and further reading:
Kolata, Gina. (2007). Sleep After Hard Workouts? You Must Be Dreaming. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/health/nutrition/13Best.html
Thompson, Jill. (2018). Sleeping (Or Taking a Nap) After Working Out—Should I do it? The Sleep Advisor. https://www.sleepadvisor.org/sleep-after-workout/
Kat Classics 