Last night, as 1am passed, I was still awake, my brain whirring with panic about the chores I had to do, making it impossible to relax enough to nod off. But, as an experienced insomniac, I have found a way to cope. I told myself that the next day, no matter what, I’d do a workout. It might not sound like a good thing to think about in the sleep-deprived small hours of the morning – but, whenever I’m having a restless night and am starting to despair, I prioritise exercise.
Dragging myself out of bed at 5.45am this morning after less than four hours sleep, I felt sick, sad and slightly delirious. But after forty-five minutes on my exercise bike, I was a different woman, my anxiety replaced with confidence, and ready for the day ahead.
There are two areas in life at which I excel: staring at the ceiling at 2am, and summoning the strength to exercise, no matter what the circumstances. Luckily, I’m convinced that one goes some way in cancelling out the other: fitness reverses at least some of the cognitive damage caused by my sleeplessness.
So I was heartened to read about a new study showing that exercise may even be better than sleep for “cleaning” the brain. In a study on rodents, academics from Imperial College London’s UK Dementia Research Institute (UKDRI) found the time it took fluorescent dye to be cleared from mice’s brains was reduced by 30 per cent in sleeping mice compared to mice kept awake. Sleep is still important, the research stressed, but, said study co-leader Prof Bill Wisden, interim centre director of the UKDRI, “being awake, active and exercising may more efficiently clean the brain of toxins”.
Last March, meanwhile, a Chinese study found that exercising two and a half hours a week – jogging, swimming or cycling, say – could undo the excess deaths from diseases linked with insomnia, such as cancer or heart disease. “In an ideal scenario, people would always get healthy amounts of both sleep and physical activity,” said lead author Dr Jihui Zhang. “However, our study indicates that getting sufficient exercise may partially offset the detrimental impact of missing a good night’s sleep.”
Which, as an exercise-addicted insomniac, is more welcome to me than any number of sleeping pills, herbal teas, hot baths and aromatherapy oils I’ve tried and abandoned in my never-ending quest to drift off – and it makes sense if you think about it.
The NHS says adults should get seven to nine hours – and, in addition to increasing our risk of cancer and heart disease, not getting enough can also increase levels of the hormone ghrelin, which increases appetite, and the likelihood of obesity. Exercise, meanwhile, is proven to reduce inflammation, lower blood pressure and suppress ghrelin – the perfect antidote, surely.
The effects can be psychological as much as physical – a discovery I made during my A-levels, when, stressed to smithereens, I averaged three hours sleep a night. I realised that forcing myself to go for a run regardless, no matter how ropey I felt, made my brain function better, my memory sharper – and, ultimately, my grades higher.
At university, the more alcohol interfered with my sleep, the more gruelling circuit sessions I did to help me study, and, as a new mother, after nights spent feeding, it sometimes felt that the only thing standing between me and insanity was a brisk walk around the park with the buggy at nap time.
Now, when work and parenting stress keep me awake, I see exercise as my best solution – the saviour that steps in when all the other so-called remedies have failed.
Not only does a run or spinning session increase the likelihood of me getting to sleep in the first place – exercise is proven to do so by reducing stress and regulating our circadian rhythm, our 24-hour internal body clock – but it keeps me coherent when I don’t.
Without exercise, sleep deprivation leaves me anxious, paranoid, tearful and pessimistic – no coincidence, perhaps, given the link between insomnia and anxiety, anger and depression.
Yet equally robust is the link between exercise and better mental health, with a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials published in the British Medical Journal this February finding exercise an “effective treatment for depression.”
Lest I get carried away, independent sleep expert Dr Neil Stanley warns that a workout is not a cure for sleep deprivation. “You can’t say, ‘if I sleep an hour less, running 10K will undo the damage. You’ve got to get enough sleep and exercise – one is not better than the other.” Nor does he think today’s study has “proved anything relevant”, stressing that “we shouldn’t extrapolate from studies in mice”.
Of course I want to sleep more. Show me an insomniac who doesn’t. However, until a magic cure comes along, I’ll seek solace in the fact that, after a bad night, a heart-pumping exercise session will at least make me feel human again.