Sleep is a problem. For people across the globe, getting a good night's sleep is a constant battle. There are many different aspects that fall into play. From diet, to noise, to exercise, to stress, to anxiety, to hydration, to timing, to shift work, to temperature, to pillows, to mattress type, to medications, to age and more; there are almost infinite factors to consider.
For the purpose of this article is to hone in on how to manage body temperature when attempting to fall asleep at night after a later than optimal exercise session.
Exercise leads to increased body temperature. The chemical reactions that happen at the cellular level while you exercise generate heat as a byproduct. If we exercise hard enough, for long enough, this heat generation results in fatigue. It's not a small effect either, heat is a MAJOR driver of fatigue. This is why we developed the Anti-Fatigue Charge bar, to help people manage rising body temperature during exercise. However, after exercise our increased body temperature can take hours to normalize or fall back to your normal range. Trying to fall asleep when body temperature is elevated is extremely difficult to say the least. This is why most sleep experts, like Dr. Matt Walker, advise that exercise should be completed at least 3 hours prior to going to bed from a sleep standpoint. For an evidence based review of the relationship between sleep and exercise check out this article from the Sleep Foundation.
For many athletes finishing up exercise 2-3 hours prior to going to bed is not possible. Many high school, college and professional sports are played at night to allow for maximal attendance. Some school and college teams have to share a gym space which leads to late practices. Many adult rec leagues also compete for space forcing people who want to play to exercise late into the evening and for some people their work schedule forces the to workout in the evening.
At AVA Cooling Technology we realized that the same physiology that we use our device to tap into in an effort to improve performance can be used to help us fall asleep as well. Through internal testing, speaking with athletic trainers, athletes and coaches we've devised a cooling protocol to help people and athletes fall asleep after late exercise sessions.
This is our protocol:
If you would like a PDF version of this protocol, email us at avacoolingtech@gmail.com or use the chat bot to message us.