According to a new study, carrying out exercise on a daily basis may lessen the amount of time you spend dreaming at night. Researchers from the University of Texas discovered that when persons engaged in at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day, they slept better at night.
Exercising also lowered the amount of time participants spent in the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stage, which is when dreams occur. According to Johns Hopkins University, this is also the period during which most people experience nightmares.
This is congruent with the recommendations doctors provide for minimising nightmares. According to Stanford sleep scientists, regular exercise, yoga, and meditation may help reduce stress and enhance sleep quality, resulting in fewer recurring nightmares.
The study was published in March in the journal Scientific Reports by psychologists from The University of Texas. The physical activity varied from strenuous workouts like running and cycling to low-intensity workouts like strolling or doing housework.
Any activity that increased participants’ heart rates counted towards their daily exercise goals. Previous research has indicated that exercise can improve sleep quality and lower the amount of time spent in REM sleep.
The investigators invited the 82 volunteers to wear Fitbits for six months to track their sleep quality and exercise duration. Using data on heart rate and physical activity, they assessed when the individuals cycled through different stages of sleep each night and how much exercise they had each day.
Each stage of sleep is distinguished by physiological changes in heart rate and brainwaves. The researchers monitored the subjects’ heart rates to determine when they reached various sleep stages. In general, heart rate slows during the early stages of sleep, but speeds up during REM.
Each night, your body goes through five different stages of sleep, beginning light and progressing deeper. Dreaming takes place during the final period of sleep, known as REM. Each stage is distinguished by physiological changes in heart rate and brain waves, which scientists can quantify.
The researchers discovered that on days when participants exercised, they spent less time in REM sleep and more time in the deep sleep stages that occur before REM.
It is assumed that during this deep sleep period, the body recharges from the day’s activities. This is the period at which the body heals and regenerates tissues, produces bone and muscle, and strengthens its immune system.
This could explain why participants reported feeling more satisfied with their sleep quality the night after exercise. Following an exercise session, participants reported feeling more energetic, less stressed, and melancholy in the morning.
The Fitbit enabled the researchers to study the individuals in their normal environment rather than in a lab for an extended period of time.
Normally, when psychologists investigate sleep patterns, volunteers must spend the night under observation in a lab, which can be stressful and disrupt sleep quality. Furthermore, due to the expenditures connected with this setup, most studies of this nature endure only a few nights.
“You can learn a lot from lab studies, but obviously, there are limitations to studying individual participants’ sleep patterns in just one night,” study co-author Benjamin Baird explained.
Exercise
David Schnyer, another co-author, believes this could be useful in future research. “The world is your oyster now. You can use this device to research all kinds of various sleep architecture data connected to lifestyle—associated to mood and mood disorders—in the field, not in a lab, which people would have felt was not conceivable earlier’.
