Remember when you were a kid and you would spend all day in the pool or the beach? Remember how that night you would struggle to make it past 7pm before your exhausted and completely drained body and mind would succumb to the pillow? It’s because swimming helps you sleep. It also makes you happier. Want a happy sleep? Swim…
Studies have shown that swimming improves your quality of sleep
Want to feel happier, more content, more satisfied and get the vitally important good night’s sleep? A study by British Gas SwimBritain from Mindlab International has revealed that swimming makes you happier. It discovered that diving into a pool and cutting some laps on a regular basis can make you feel happier as well as healthier, with participants reporting an increase of 35% in positivity during the four-week study.
Swimming not only makes you happier but allows you to sleep better
A complete body workout: Swimming uses all the muscles of your body. It requires full body effort and a lot of energy which will exhaust your muscles and make you sleepy.
Sunlight: A solid swim drains the body and when you add the gruelling sun it drains the muscles even more. Swimming outdoors in direct contact with sun can increase your fatigue and tiredness.
Water temperature: When you’re swimming despite the intensity of your workout, your body temperature will drop. Cold water decreases blood flow in the muscles and makes you lose heat quickly, so this makes your body work much harder just to stay warm and this in turn makes you waste more energy. Post swim your body goes through a re-heating process of getting your body back to its normal temperature. This is also energy consuming which again makes you even more tired and puts you in a better place to enjoy a deeper, more restorative sleep.
Want to Swim Better? Sleep….
Sleep plays a pivotal role in athletic performance and competitive results. Just like you need more calories when you are training, you also need more sleep. When you push your body harder you need more time to recover, sleep is the time when your body repairs itself, if you don’t get enough sleep you’re not giving yourself the best chances to perform well.
Sleep Better
Sleep is the cornerstone of a healthy and happy you. If you aren’t getting the best sleep possible it is important that you experiment with a range of different things that can help turn your poor sleep around. Why not start with swimming?
(Photo courtesy of museum.loftbeds.net)
