The Importance of Regular Multimodal Exercise Interventions on Sleep Quality via Embodied Consciousness

Abstract

Although sleep quality links to multiple cognitive, mental, physical, and physiological benefits, about 60% of US adults do not get enough sleep. First-line treatments for insomnia include pharmacotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Given the limitations of pharmacotherapy, including cost, side effects, tolerance, and dependency, researchers have recently focused on non-pharmacological approaches, such as the linkage between exercise and sleep quality. Grounded in Merleau-Ponty’s concept of embodied consciousness (body-mind unison), the purpose of this conceptual paper was to examine the multidimensional mechanisms related to the positive effects of multimodal exercise training programs on sleep quality. It was shown how regular endurance training and body-mind interventions like Tai Chi, Yoga, and Qigong constitute strong embodied consciousness or a shapely body schema, which is our motor habit or the way our body is habituated to the world. In this way, multiple physiological and psychological mechanisms can work synergistically to improve sleep quality. Regular exercise can lead to a balanced body schema, linking the in-itself (neurophysiological) and for-itself (psychological) body structures for improved sleep quality. Examples include increased slow-wave sleep; decreased Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep and sympathetic activity; enhanced modulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and circadian rhythms; increased human growth hormone; improved insulin resistance, and decreased stress and depression.