4 ms·

Ignoring the "go to bed" and "wake up" advice, one could be a night owl and still be healthier for following the rest of the advice. I myself used to be much m

by mabbo 7y ago

Ignoring the "go to bed" and "wake up" advice, one could be a night owl and still be healthier for following the rest of the advice. I myself used to be much more of a night owl- bed before 11:30 was just not going to happen. My wife is not. When we moved in together, I wanted to match her schedule. I started doing most of the things on this list and it worked for me. I went to bed last night at 10 and got up at 5:30 so I could go to the gym. Me of 10 years ago would have said that was impossible.

stronglikedan 7y ago
You'd also have to ignore the "Exercise only in the morning" advice. Exercising any time of day will keep you just as healthy.
- JoelMcCracken 7y ago
  I don't have citations, but have read data that supports the idea that exercising in the evening results in higher cortisol levels, and thus lower levels of melatonin in the evenings.
  - stronglikedan 7y ago
    Sure, if you buy into the "you can't be a night owl and be healthy" thing (as this article seems to suggest). I think you can have both. I feel that making people think it's somehow better to exercise only in the morning will discourage some people from exercising daily, which I feel is more important than the time of day.
    - ehnto 7y ago
      The grandparent comment is also assuming that you want to sleep in the evening, which means you wouldn't be a night owl so it kind of misses the point. There are still lots of people in this thread assuming that the "problem" that night owls face is that they're not sleeping in the evening, that's not it at all. They're sleeping in their natural cycle, it just doesn't fit with typical modern life. So if exercising in the evening raises cortisol, and makes it hard to sleep for normal people, then that's not going to be a problem from someone sleeping at 4am. I train anywhere from 9pm-1am and always sleep better at what seems to be my natural sleep time, which is around 3-5am.
      - JoelMcCracken 7y ago
        Both your points are fine, I'm not attempting to say anything one way or the other, only to raise awareness that exercise has a hormonal response that some do not take into account.

by mabbo 7y ago

stronglikedan 7y ago

You'd also have to ignore the "Exercise only in the morning" advice. Exercising any time of day will keep you just as healthy.

JoelMcCracken 7y ago
I don't have citations, but have read data that supports the idea that exercising in the evening results in higher cortisol levels, and thus lower levels of melatonin in the evenings.
- stronglikedan 7y ago
  Sure, if you buy into the "you can't be a night owl and be healthy" thing (as this article seems to suggest). I think you can have both. I feel that making people think it's somehow better to exercise only in the morning will discourage some people from exercising daily, which I feel is more important than the time of day.
  - ehnto 7y ago
    The grandparent comment is also assuming that you want to sleep in the evening, which means you wouldn't be a night owl so it kind of misses the point. There are still lots of people in this thread assuming that the "problem" that night owls face is that they're not sleeping in the evening, that's not it at all. They're sleeping in their natural cycle, it just doesn't fit with typical modern life. So if exercising in the evening raises cortisol, and makes it hard to sleep for normal people, then that's not going to be a problem from someone sleeping at 4am. I train anywhere from 9pm-1am and always sleep better at what seems to be my natural sleep time, which is around 3-5am.
    - JoelMcCracken 7y ago
      Both your points are fine, I'm not attempting to say anything one way or the other, only to raise awareness that exercise has a hormonal response that some do not take into account.