Exercise Could Serve as a Safer Solution for Chronic Insomnia

People who are suffering chronic insomnia oftentimes rely on sleeping pills to get the shuteye they deserve. However, consuming sleeping pill can sometimes have unwarranted risk including infections, falling and dementia.

According to the estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one-third of American adults do not get enough sleep and nearly 10 percent are suffering with chronic insomnia. It's only natural for someone who is desperate to get some goodnight sleep to pop a pill. However, science has a safer way of dealing with sleep deprivation and insomnia.

Myriad of researches in the past have associated goodnight sleep with exercise. Additionally, there have been lots of studies stating that people who have adequate amount of exercise also reported to have good sleep quality.

"There is large amount of literature showing that people who exercise have better sleep," said Kelly Glazer Baron, a clinical psychologist at Rush University, in a report from CNN. "People who exercise reported an increase in deep sleep and a decrease in the number of awakenings. Plus, people felt less depressed, and their mood was better."

Aside from promoting a good quality sleep and preventing the development of insomnia, exercising could also help in reducing sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome. Sleep apnea is a dangerous disorder in which a person's breathing is temporarily stopped for up to minute during the night. On the other hand, restless legs syndrome is a disorder of the nervous system that make the legs, or other parts of the body like the arms or face, feel itchy, like burning or move involuntary. Both sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome contribute to sleep deprivation.

Adults are recommended to do two kinds of physical activities every week. These are the aerobic activity and muscle-training activity. For the aerobic activity, a person could choose to perform either 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity every week. For muscle-training activities, an adult should spend about two or more days per week.