[rabidstoat]

Has anyone else had their sleep pattern disrupted after increasing the amount of exercise they do?

For the past few months I've been doing 30 minutes of exercise most days, maybe 5 out of every 7, with the rare burst of 'weekend warrior' activity that leaves me exhausted and tired. Three and a half weeks out from my month-long vacation in Asia, I decided I wanted to get in better shape, so I can make the most of sight-seeing.

I've increased exercise this past week to at least 30 minutes each day, and often 60-90 minutes, and started 'cross-training' and mixing up what I do in roughly 30-minute chunks: walking, biking, climbing stairs, aerobics, Dance Dance Revolution, or weight-lifting.

So far so good, but what I've noticed is that my sleep pattern has been weird. Some nights I'll be exhausted and go to bed at 9 and sleep through for 9 hours. Sometimes I'll go to bed at 8, wake up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night, and sleep more. Sometimes I'll go to bed early and sleep less than 8 hours, and end up waking up at like 4 am.

I'm not sure if this is related to my new exercise patterns, or birth control pills I recently started, or what. I'm not having problems with energy levels or being tired, per se, but my sleep schedule (and correspondingly, my work schedule) is seriously wacky this past week!

[dollypie]

Are you exercising in the morning or evening? I exercise in the morning because if I do in the evening I have trouble sleeping.

[Ilene]

My question was going to also be whether you exercised in the morning or evening. Other than swimming, if I run in the late evening I am wired for sound, bur swimming makes me sleep like a baby.... It could very well be your birth control pill too because it plays with your hormones, since menopause I have had some difficulties sleeping and this I know is because of hormonal fluctuations.