how does outdoor exercise affect your sleep?
the sleep summary
Exercise has a positive impact on your mental health due to the feel-good endorphins that are released, helping relieve anxiety and stress.
A regular exercise routine will help you fall asleep faster at night and increases your sleep duration. Then in turn, having a good night’s sleep allows you to feel more motivated to workout the following day, leading to increased fitness levels.
Outdoor exercise can help your sleep due to it regulating your circadian rhythm, the fresh air and natural sounds encouraging better ventilation, and the calmer environment helping to improve your mood.
Outdoor exercise doesn’t have to be high intensity, it can be anything from a light walk or jog, to a run, cycling and outdoor sports such as football.
Benefits of outdoor exercise include an improved immune system, a more stimulating and motivating environment to workout in, it’s more challenging on your body and it gives you a chance to connect with nature and your surroundings.
how does outdoor exercise affect your sleep and mental health?
Whether getting out for a walk, run or cycle, there’s no doubting how exercising outdoors can make us feel so much better and even more so after a good night’s sleep. We all spend too much time indoors, which means we’re not connecting with nature and appreciating our outdoor surroundings.
So, by making an effort to get off the sofa and exercise outdoors, you’ll not only boost your mood, but you’ll start to appreciate the environment more too – and even get a good kip at the end of it. Read on to find out how exercise can improve your mental health and sleep, the benefits of exercising outdoors and how we can all reconnect with nature, appreciating what we have to protect.
exercise to improve mental health
We all know that exercise is good for physical health, but it’s actually a great way to improve your mental health too. Exercise releases those feel-good endorphins, which in turn helps to relieve depression and anxiety, all while enhancing your sense of well-being. You don’t have to do lots of exercise, even modest amounts can make all the difference; giving you more energy throughout the day, improving your sleep and memory, and boosting your overall mood.
Studies show that running for 15 minutes a day or walking for an hour helps to reduce depression by 26%. Exercise is a powerful way to fight depression and encourages various changes in the brain, including neural growth, the reduction of inflammation and promoting a feeling of calm. It’s also a distraction, helping to disrupt the negative flow of thoughts running through your head. Exercise is an excellent stress reliever too, aiding muscle relaxation and easing tension within your body. And as the body and mind are closely linked, when you feel good in your body, you’ll also feel good in the mind.
does exercise help sleep?
As well as being good for mental and physical health, it’s been proven that regular exercise leads to a better night’s sleep.
How? Exercise helps you to fall asleep faster and increases your sleep duration, with people who work out on a regular basis reporting better sleep quality. What’s more, studies have shown that regular, moderate aerobic exercise decreases the time it takes you to fall asleep and increases time spent in deep sleep. What’s more, a good night’s sleep makes you feel more motivated to exercise the next day and if it’s quality sleep, it’ll likely lead to improved fitness levels. Exercising regularly will help to align your body clock and increase levels of serotonin, which is important in the sleep-wake cycle. You don’t have to do lots of exercise to feel the benefits; just 30 minutes a day is enough to improve your sleep.
Top tip: Activities such as brisk walking and hilly bike rides get your heart rate up without activating the chemicals that can prevent you from falling asleep.
how does outdoor exercise affect sleep quality?
Exercising outdoors can affect your sleep quality in a number of ways:
Regulation of your circadian rhythm
Exercising outdoors and having that daylight exposure helps regulate your body’s internal clock. This then improves your sleep timing, making it easier to fall asleep at night and supporting consistent wake times.
Outdoor environments tend to be more calming
A calmer outdoor setting can help reduce stress and improve your mood, which are both strongly linked to better sleep quality.
Fresh air and natural sounds
Better ventilation and natural sounds can help your body to relax, making the body transition easier into a restful state.
outdoor vs indoor exercise for sleep improvement
Both indoor and outdoor exercise will help improve your sleep, and the main thing is that your exercising full stop. However, there are a few differences to how they compare, mainly because outdoor exercise combines physical activity with natural environment cues. We mentioned these above, but as a reminder:
Outdoor exercise gives you daylight exposure, which helps regulate circadian rhythms, compared to exercising in darker spaces such as your home or the gym.
Outdoor green spaces can help reduce stress and improve mood.
Fresh air and natural sounds encourage relaxation, which you can't find indoors.
Even though outdoor exercise offers these factors, indoor exercise still remains highly effective, as the main sleep benefits come from physical activity itself, including increased sleep pressure and muscle recovery.
the connection between fresh air and sleep quality
The connection between fresh air and better sleep is mostly indirect. Fresh air can help with better breathing and also exposes you to natural temperature fluctuations. As the body's temperature regulation is linked to sleep, it can also support healthy daily temperature rhythms that contribute to feeling sleepy at night.
how natural sounds during exercise aid sleep
Natural sounds during exercising outdoors (such as wind, tweeting birds, and rustling leaves) can improve your sleep mainly by influencing your stress system and attention patterns during the day, which is then carried through into the night. Natural sounds tend to be non-threatening and predictable, which helps your brain shift towards a calmer state. They also mask disruptive outdoor noises such as traffic and construction, which are more likely to trigger microarousals during sleep. So essentially, more exposure to natural and gentler sound environments will train your body to react less strongly to noise and stay more stable during sleep.
the best outdoor exercises for better sleep
You don’t need to do anything that’s too intense. Here are a few ideas of outdoor exercises you could try:
Walking / jogging / running
Cycling
Outdoor HIIT (high intensity interval training) or LIIT (low intensity internal training) workout
Outdoor sports e.g. football, cricket, tennis etc
With things like a HIIT/LIIT workout, you could even do this in your garden so you’re not having to venture away from home. Set yourself up a circuit of exercises and do it in your own time and space.
the benefits of outdoor exercise
Exercising outdoors, and on a good night’s sleep, has many benefits, including:
It’s great for boosting your immune system and sense of well-being, warding off seasonal affective disorder, burning more calories and best of all, it won’t cost you anything.
Exercising outdoors is much more stimulating and motivating compared to a gym or an indoors environment. Being in the great outdoors leads to more enjoyment, energy and enthusiasm, and you’re more likely to work out longer and harder. Plus you’ll get a burst of vitamin D on those sunny days.
Exercising on various outside terrain is more challenging for your body too, compared to working out on a flat surface.
According to a study at the University of Queensland, people who exercise outdoors often have higher levels of serotonin, compared to those who workout inside. They also have increased levels of endorphins, especially in green environments.
It gives you an opportunity to reconnect with nature and your surroundings. Fresh air, grass, trees and natural colours have a positive effect on us all, making us more appreciative of our environment and leading us to taking more steps towards protecting it.
So, if we all make an effort to exercise outdoors more, not only will you benefit from a better night's sleep and improved mental and physical health, you'll grow an appreciation of the natural environment and see just what is worth protecting. After all, who doesn't enjoy a long walk in the beautiful countryside or by the coast - we all have a responsibility to protect our environment, so we can enjoy it now and for years to come. Exercising outdoors brings together physical activity and natural environmental benefits that can improve both your mental well-being and sleep quality.
From reducing stress and boosting mood to helping regulate the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, outdoor exercise supports deeper, more restorative rest. Making outdoor exercise part of your routine can help improve your health, sleep, and connection to the natural world. Found this article helpful? Read up on the connection between sleep and sport performance.
