SLEEPOPOLIS – Fresh air and physical activity are famed for priming the mind and body for a restful sleep.
Combine those features with a pleasurable hobby that encourages stress relief and mental wellbeing, and you’ll have an even greater chance of easily drifting off into a peaceful slumber.
One pursuit that encompasses all of the above is gardening, and a new study suggests it’s an effective way to get better sleep.
Gardening is a popular and rewarding hobby enjoyed by 55 percent of U.S. households.
Multiple studies show that gardening improves well-being, lowers stress, and helps people stay active in a pleasurable and satisfying way.
The study, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, looked into the sleep patterns of 62,098 adults, dividing them into groups based on their exercise habits — those who don’t exercise, gardeners, and those who do other types of exercisers.
They used a questionnaire to explore various sleep issues like too much or too little sleep, probable insomnia, feeling sleepy during the day, and sleep apnea.
The researchers focused on people with multiple sleep issues and examined each sleep problem individually. By comparing the sleep quality of gardeners with non-gardeners and other exercisers, they sought insight into how gardening can impact sleep.
How Gardening Improves Sleep
Jamie Shipley, a gardening expert and Managing Director of Hedges Direct, says, “We might not realize, but by weaving gardening into our lives, we are also nurturing our own mental health—spending time in the garden is a great way to keep your mental health in check [and] breathing fresh air does us all the world of good, especially when we are surrounded by plants.”
Improves Mental Health
It’s true that mental health has a huge impact on sleep. Stress and anxiety make falling asleep and achieving restful, quality sleep more challenging by activating the nervous system and preventing the relaxing energy necessary for a calm, restful body and mind.
