To Your Health
July, 2024 (Vol. 18, Issue 07) |
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Late Exercise, Longer Sleep?
By Editorial Staff
What time of day do you exercise? While experts have long debated the timing and how it impacts numerous variables, including sleep quality, it appears – based on new research – that if you don't already work out at night, you may want to consider adding some physical activity to your nightly routine. Why? Because it could help you sleep longer.
Study participants participated in four-hour evening sessions under two conditions: prolonged sitting (the control scenario) or sitting interrupted by three-minute activity "breaks" every 30 minutes. Activity included various bodyweight exercises, and each four-hour session began at 5:00 p.m.
After participants completed the activity breaks, they slept for 30 minutes longer, on average, on the night of the intervention compared to the night they sat for the full four hours beforehand. The evening activity also did not disrupt other key elements of sleep, such as sleep quality. Findings appear in BMJ Open Sport and Medicine.
If you're not getting enough sleep on a consistent basis, changing up when you exercise to favor evening activity (or adding some evening activity if you tend to exercise in the morning, but spend a lot of time sitting in the evening) may be an important part of the solution.
