 |
Want
to Sleep Better? Ride a Bike (Safely)
An ideal exercise for fostering good sleep is one that taxes
both your body and brain. There is another criteria that I
will add: The exercise should be reasonably safe. The goal
of this website, after all, is to help you sleep like the
dead, not be dead.
Bicycling either on road or off road (mountain biking) is good
exercise, especially for your lower body. It usually puts less
stress on your knees, ankles, hips and back than jogging does.
It can also work your mind in a few ways. The changing scenery
of bike riding keeps your mind stimulated. More importantly,
bike riding, especially mountain biking, forces your mind
to pay close attention to what you are doing or risk serious
bodily injury.
And that brings me to the issue of safety. Nearly 600,000
people go the emergency room annually to treat bicycling-related
injuries. That's a big number. And think of all the people
who were injured on a bike and did not go to the emergency
room.
What this means is that there is a pretty good chance that,
even if you just ride lightly around the neighborhood, you
will crash sooner or later for one reason or another. Trying
to get a good night's sleep with bruises, scraps or worse
is not easy. Trust me, I know.
I'm not saying to avoid riding a bike. If you enjoy bicycling
then do it. Just understand that there are arguably safer and
more effective ways to exercise enough so that you can sleep
well.
External resources
Kenkifer.com
article
Bupa
article
Choose
Fitness article
|
