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Trouble sleeping? More exercise could be the answer, study suggests; martial artist and runner attests to its power
- Michelle Sum, a corporate communications worker in Hong Kong, overcame anxiety and insomnia after taking up martial arts and trail running
- Sum’s experience underscores recent study findings that exercising two to three times a week reduces the risk of sleeplessness
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Before discovering the power of exercise, Michelle Sum had many sleepless nights.
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She often suffered from insomnia, and taking a melatonin supplement – commonly used to help regulate sleep – did not help.
But since she took up trail running, Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Sum has been able to sleep the whole night through, without interruption.
“Before sports, my sleep was often broken. I would spend nights awake with anxiety and insomnia,” says Sum, who lives in Hong Kong.
“But going from zero exercise and working a stressful corporate job to being a weekend warrior has helped me to find sleep again.”
The 38-year-old’s experience chimes with the findings of a new international longitudinal study published in the medical journal BMJ Open, which found exercising two to three times a week reduces the risk of insomnia.
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