Sleep after exercising sometimes or as a daily routine? Sleep implies short nap or nighttime sleep? Does the exercising involve gentle body flexing and stretching or an easy walk or is it vigorous body building such as weight lifting or vigorous cardiac exercises such as running?
I am assuming that this question applies to someone who has a predominantly sedentary lifestyle such as full time desk job or is a student and the exercise is for optimal physical fitness and health. Sportsmen and other professionals who exercise for building muscle strength or long distance runners training for marathon, etc are not covered in this answer and they would be advised to talk to their coach or physician.
Before we go into specific answers to the above questions, it would be helpful to understand our body’s circadian rhythm. Please read the following article to understand our body’s biological clock. I have also written some articles about wholesome wellbeing called the self care series in my blog. It contains articles on what is wholesome sleep, how to enjoy wholesome sleep, how water can become the elixir for everlasting wellbeing, how to eat food and what is wholesome physical activity. All these articles would help in gaining a deeper understanding to help cultivate healthy daily routine habits.https://awarenessjourney.org/circadian-rhythm-the-bodys-biological-clock/
Sleeping or napping is ok under the following circumstances.
We can cultivate a daily habit of going for a walk at night or practice some gentle yoga stretches and movements or energy movements one hour after dinner every night. This is perfect and sufficient exercise if we do it for at least thirty minutes every night and we can go off to sleep afterwards. It will help us in releasing the energies of the day and enjoy wholesome healing sleep throughout the night.
On the other hand an early morning workout routine is also very good for physical fitness especially if it is practiced outdoors in sunlight. Thirty minutes to one hour of walking or yoga and energy movements is very good in the mornings. I would advise not to practice intensive exercise in the mornings as it might leave you tired and suboptimal throughout the day especially if you are doing it on an empty stomach. A short nap for fifteen minutes is very good after such morning exercise but if you have had a full night of wholesome sleep, you may not need it.
Sleeping or even short nap is not ok under the following circumstances.
When we do exercise intensely on an empty stomach we may feel very sleepy immediately afterwards but this is due to complete draining of energy. The body needs nourishment immediately and instead one may fall asleep which is pretty unhealthy. The body goes into a metabolic slow down and the body metabolism at rest drops drastically. Calorie burn during workouts is only a small part of the total calories our body burns throughout the day and this depends on our body metabolism. The best time to do intense exercise is about two hours after a full meal or one hour after a small meal.
It is also not advisable to lie down and sleep immediately after eating because this results in disrupting both the sleep as well as the digestive process. Sitting and dozing off for a short time is ok in such circumstances.
To learn more on the subject of holistic physical as well as mental and emotional wellbeing please browse through my website from the link above. You will find a lot of free resources in addition to information and you can also reach out to seek mentoring support through the website.