Summer may be over, but hopefully, the battle to stay healthy and fit is not. As we all look for an edge heading into a more stressful time of the year, sleep and fitness should be at the top of everyone's list.

Exercise for Sleep

1. Reduction in anxiety - Removing stress and getting the mind to shut down at night makes sleep that much sweeter. Exercise can help to lower anxiety levels.
2. Antidepressant effects - Exercise is a well known antidepressant, and much like the benefits from reduced anxiety, lower depression levels can help ensure a good night of sleep.
3. Body clock rhythmicity - Regular exercise can get the body into a rhythm, and the human body loves regularity and keeping to a schedule. This is especially true when we want to ensure that we're sleeping well at the right times.
4. Body temperature regulation - Most people don't realize that core body temperature drops right when we're falling asleep and that higher body temperatures are associated with more slow wave, deep sleep. Exercise can help boost body temperature during the day and thus help with that drop at night and keeping the body temperature up and the metabolism going, in general.

At some level, everybody's probably heard that sleep can benefit from exercise, so it's yet another reason to head to the gym. But what about the other way around? Will a good night of sleep help you get and stay fit? Evidence continues to mount about the benefits of good sleep on health, fitness, and exercise.

Sleep to Manage Weight

Getting enough sleep could be a key factor in keeping body weight under control. Yup, you read that right. Lack of sleep is associated with disrupted levels of the hormones leptin and ghrelin which regulate appetite.

Meaning if you get less sleep, those hormones get out of balance and you get more hungry - and you start eating sweets. There was also an interesting study a few years ago that looked at sleeping more as a way to lose weight. The conclusion: "replacing some sedentary activity with sleeping might offer a practical behavioral solution for a large segment of the overweight population."

Sleep for Athletic Performance

Okay, better sleep can lead to better weight management, but for those who are really into the performance end of fitness, is sleep really going to be a big deal?

More and more people involved in performance athletics, including the Boston Celtics and Team Radioshack, are making sleep a priority in their training, and there's a growing body of evidence to back this trend. Some studies have also looked at the direct benefits to athletic performance from getting more sleep. In particular, Cheri Mah's group at Stanford University have found the benefits of increased sleep length in competitive NCAA athletes:

1. Basketball - better sprint times, better free-throw shooting, more vigor, and less fatigue.
2. Swimming - better sprint times, better reaction times, better turn times, increased kick strokes, more vigor, and less fatigue.
3. Tennis - better sprint times, better accuracy and valid serves, better hitting depth drill, more vigor, and less fatigue.
4. Football - faster 20-yard shuttle and 40-yard dash, more vigor, and less fatigue.

And before all you baseball pros out there think you're off the hook: sleeping times and preferences can have a big affect on pitcher performance in the big leagues. Exercise and sleep may be interrelated in more ways than we know and there are already clear benefits to both. The bottom line: hit the gym, then hit the hay - it's a win-win.

Michael J. Breus, Ph.D., is a Clinical Psychologist and both a Diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine and a Fellow of The American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He was one of the youngest people to have passed the Board at age 31 and, with a specialty in Sleep Disorders, is one of only 163 psychologists in the world with his credentials and distinction. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board at the Zeo Sleep Research Center.