Speed round time: SLEEP or SWEAT?

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rsz_screen_shot_2014-08-10_at_45928_amMy FAVE tank-top post shvitz‘ing

OK, People.

It’s a hectic time of year for most of us.

Even if you don’t have a child starting THIRD GRADE next week (!) summer is wrapping up in the Northern Hemisphere which means life can just feel jam packed and rushed.

Around here the hectic manifests itself in choices.

swimming or hiking?

playground time or trampoline jumpage?

kickball game or badminton tournament?

beach hangout or backyard BBQ?

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Even though life is crazy in a good way—it’s crazy.

As The Tornado & I squeeze every last bit of fun out of our summer—it frequently forces me to make some hard choices of my own.

 If I only have 30 minutes of ME-time each day which do I choose: SLEEP or SWEAT?

Sure in a perfect world we’d all have time for both.

Yes I’m hoping in 2015 this perfect world shall become reality and we’ll all snag 8 slumber’y hours and 60 minutes of shvitz per day.

Until then, with all the pool-play-book edits–monkey bars-movie matinees-hopscotch time there’s a need to choose.

  • I’m known for saying: I’m not markedly more tired if I wake 30 minutes early to exercise than if I Zzzzzz 1800 more seconds.
  • I know many of you beg to differ.

And, as much as I’d like to believe I’m always right, I researched.

It seems when it comes to selecting sleep versus sweat the choice appears to be a health-benefit toss-up.

Lemmie break it down.

Too little sleep can cause:

The benefits of exercise (even short bouts!) include what most of us already knew:

Because I know you’re all in a hurry!hurry! to get back to your busy lives I shall sum it up for you in a highly nonscientific fashion:

When it comes to choosing SLEEP vs SWEAT the health benefits are a freakin’ toss-up.

It’s all what feels best to us and that’s my question to you today.

One word answers, please.

  • When you’re forced to choose whats your selection SLEEP or SWEAT?

 

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Comments

  1. tough tough question and one i may be dealing with this afternoon after dealing with the worst night’s sleep ever. since both have positives, listen to your body!

  3. It just goes along with my somewhat high strung personality to go for a workout over sleep. I’m also a morning person so for me the extra sleep really should be coming from going to bed earlier. I also have never seen evidence in myself at least of lack of sleep leading to weight gain, but I’m sure for some it’s another story. I have never been a great sleeper or ever felt like I needed more than 7 hours on average. Interesting topic!

  4. As much as I love sleep, I find myself in this battle more often than not. I know my body needs both sleep and sweat (exercise) to function accordingly. The last 2 or 3 weeks have been 4-5 hour sleep nights and a whole lotta working. I definitely need to treat my body better to recuperate.

  8. so tough…one I battle with often haha even without kids, work is exhausting mentally and physically. but all in all, if it really came down to it I’d choose sweat. 🙂 I really do always feel better after a workout BUT I don’t always feel better after I get a few more minutes of snooze…

  14. And I will be the fence-sitter and say “it depends”. On why I’m tired. On how busy the rest of the day is. On whether I hit the gym the day before. Peri-m insomnia is like no other lack if sleep I’ve experienced. Even having had three babies…

  15. These days it is sometimes sleep & always time at some point for the exercise… MY workouts are important to me but so is sleep & life so for me, and I know some would disagree with me too, I am going to choose less social media & less blogging to allow for more sleep, work & exercise – my health. 🙂

  16. Shorten and intensify the exercise routine a bit, and get a few more zzz’s in. Not perfect, yet it works for me on those days when it seems i just can’t get it all in.

  20. I’ve always chosen to exercise, Carla. Exercise always wakes me up, sleeping 30 more minutes doesn’t do much. What does work is a 10 minute meditation later in the day if you can find the time. Just blocking our the light and closing my eyes works wonders. I do it until I see a green light (with eyes closed). I don’t know if anyone else has that experience?

  23. I’ve been debating this a lot lately since my sleep pattern has been so erratic. I’m finally coming to terms with the fact that my workouts suffer mightily if I’m lacking too much in the sleep dept so if I have to choose, I’m opting for the extra ZZZs.

  24. Most often, sleep. Some days – for key workouts, I’ll sweat instead. I just know if I get less than 8 hours one night my body pretty much forces me to make up for it within a day or 2 or I get cranky/tired/whiny/useless.

  25. Most of the time, I choose sweat. The 5 AM alarm goes off, and we flip on a light and jump out of bed. But there is usually one morning every other week when the alarm goes off and I say ‘NOPE!’ And float back off to dream land for an extra 45 minutes! Sometimes I don’t actually fall back asleep, and then I’ll get up and do a little bit of something. But when I know I really need it, I can. The body does what the body needs.

  31. oh good question

    lately I would say for me sleep as I have not been getting much

    but normally would pick sweat! working out always makes me feel good

  32. I used to be in the school of thought that I could make up on my sleep later.. always time to sweat! In the more recent months, I’ve decided that it’s just not fun feeling so worn out all the time. I can make up on my shvitzing later, yes? 😉

  33. Sweat. It’s a way to release and refresh my mind. With sleeping I can fall into the trap of avoiding a situation and when I sweat it clears my mind and falls into place. And can I just say that I absolutely love that you call her your little tornado?:-) She is so cute!

    • Sleep…but I’ve been really trying to do the sweat thing more. If I’m lucky, it might happen 2-3 times a week and that’s ok. #wycwyc 🙂 I really need to try to go to bed earlier so it’s not so hard to get up in the morning but I’m such a night owl!

  36. Well, I suffer from insomnia, so I am unable to chose to sleep LOL! I don’t deliberately wake up early to exercise because I don’t have to do that – I can do it later in the day. I always try to fit in exercise because I need the stress relief of it.

  40. As an empty nester, I typically don’t need to worry about this type of choice as I get plenty of time to do both. There are benefits to both sleep and fitness; I’d do whichever I felt I was lacking more of during the week…

    Enjoy these years, they pass very quickly and you’ll miss your little one when this hectic time of your life is past..

  42. SWEAT- (I get 7-8 hrs and am up at 4.) I am so much more productive at work and during my days off if I start my day with a swim/bike/run/yoga/weight workout…

  45. Well this maybe the answer — all I actually need is sleep. I have been sleep-deprived ever since I started taking too many jobs at a time. And now I look like I aged 10 years because of stress and over fatigue. I’ll try to takes things easy from now on, I hope.

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