According to a paper [1] published in 2014 in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, that there is a bidirectional relationship between sleeping and working out. Many of us have probably heard about this study, but rarely do we stop and think what would happen to our sleep schedules if we did cease to exercise. We know that we can achieve better and more restful sleeping habits if we workout for 45 or so minutes a day; however, many graduates students, myself included should be spending time in the gym or exercising even in the off season of their sports. This is not even to stay in shape for their sports, but instead, to maintain the sleeping patterns and effectiveness of that sleep.  From this article, I learned that we should be forcing ourselves to workout to, of course, benefit from the known effects of working out on health, but also to achieve the indirect benefits of obtaining better sleep patterns and become healthier from that.

1:Kline CE. The bidirectional relationship between exercise and sleep: Implications for exercise adherence and sleep improvement. American journal of lifestyle medicine. 2014;8(6):375-379. doi:10.1177/1559827614544437.