Exercising daily could stop you having nightmares, new study suggests

One run a day could help keep the boogeyman away.

According to a new study, exercising daily could reduce the amount of time you spend dreaming each night.

Researchers at the University of Texas found that when people got at least 60 minutes of physical activity during the day, they slept better at night.

Additionally, exercise reduced the amount of time people spent in the period of sleep in which dreams occur, called rapid eye movement sleep, or REM sleep.

This is also the period when most people have nightmares, according to Johns Hopkins.

This is consistent with recommendations doctors already make to reduce nightmares. “Regular exercise, yoga and meditation can also help reduce stress and improve sleep quality,” and in turn reduce chronic nightmares, according to Stanford Sleep Scientists.

The study was published in early March in the journal Scientific Reports by psychologists at the University of Texas.

The type of physical activity varied from intense workouts such as running and cycling to low-intensity exercises such as walking or doing housework.

Any activity that increased participants’ heart rates counted toward their daily exercise goals.

Previous studies have shown that exercise can lead to improvements in sleep quality and reduce the amount of time spent in REM sleep.

The scientists asked the 82 participants to wear Fitbits to capture details about sleep quality and exercise duration over a six-month period.

Using data on heart rate and body movement, they determined when the participants went through different stages of sleep each night and how much exercise they got each day.

Each stage of sleep is characterized by physiological changes in heart rate and brain waves. Here, researchers tracked participants’ heart rates to determine when they entered different stages of sleep.

Generally speaking, your heart rate decreases during the early stages of sleep, but increases at a faster rate during the time you are in REM.

Each night, your body goes through five different stages of sleep, starting with light sleep and progressively deeper. The final stage of sleep, REM, is when dreams occur.

Each stage is characterized by physiological changes in heart rate and brain waves, which scientists can measure.

The researchers found that on days when participants exercised, they spent less time in REM sleep, but more time in the stages of deep sleep that occur before REM sleep.

It is thought that this stage of deep sleep is when the body recharges the most from the day. “This is the stage in which the body repairs and regenerates tissues, forms bones and muscles and strengthens the immune system.” according to the NIH.

This could be why participants reported being more satisfied with their sleep quality one night after exercise. Participants reported feeling more energetic and less stressed and sad in the morning after an exercise session.

Using Fitbit allowed the researchers to observe participants in their natural environment rather than in a laboratory for a long period of time.

Typically, when psychologists study sleep patterns, participants have to spend the night under observation in a laboratory, which can be stressful and disrupt the quality of sleep.

Additionally, due to the costs associated with this setup, most studies of this type last only a few nights.

“A lot can be learned from laboratory studies, but there are obviously limitations to studying the sleep patterns of individual participants in a single night,” said study co-author Benjamin Baird.

This has potential applications in future studies, said David Schnyer, another co-author.

‘The world is now at your fingertips. “You can use this device to study all kinds of different lifestyle-related sleep architecture data (related to mood and mood disorders) in the field, not in a lab, which “People might have thought it wasn’t possible before,” he said.