Resistance exercise in the evening could help you get around 27 minutes more sleep, according to a study that challenges conventional advice to avoid strenuous exercise before bedtime.
Studies have shown that evening resistance exercise can increase your sleep time by an average of 27 minutes without affecting your sleep quality.
The study, which involved 30 participants, contrasts with guidelines that advise against strenuous exercise before bedtime and highlights the potential long-term health benefits.
Nighttime resistance exercise “activity breaks” may improve sleep duration, suggests the results of a small controlled study published in an open access journal. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine.
Research suggests that taking a three-minute break every 30 minutes for four hours may be enough.
Current recommendations advise against vigorous exercise before bedtime because it can increase body temperature and heart rate, reducing sleep quality, according to the researchers.
Investigating the effects of activity breaks on sleep
Although post-meal exercise breaks may improve metabolism, it is unclear whether they have any effect on sleep, as poor sleep has been linked to an increased risk of cardiometabolic disorders such as coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes, the researchers explain.
To explore this further, the researchers enrolled 30 non-smokers aged 18 to 40 years old, all of whom reported spending more than five hours sitting during the day and more than two hours sitting in the evening while at work.
To capture habitual physical activity and sleep patterns, participants wore an activity tracker on their non-dominant wrist for seven consecutive days and were asked to record periods when they did not wear the device, as well as their bedtime and wake-up times.
Participants were also asked to record physical activity they engaged in while not wearing the activity tracker, such as swimming or contact sports, as well as activities known to be inaccurately identified by trackers, such as stationary biking and yoga.
Experimental sessions and exercise routines
Each participant completed two 4-h sessions in a controlled laboratory environment, starting around 17:00–17:30 on the same day of the week, with a minimum of 6 days between sessions.
In one session, participants remained seated for four hours, and in the other, they performed three minutes of simple resistance exercise every 30 minutes over the course of four hours. Afterwards, participants returned to their usual daily living environment.
During each activity break, participants performed three 20-second rounds of three exercises – chair squats, calf raises and standing knee raises with leg extensions and hip extensions – while also playing a video recording of someone performing the same exercises.
Before the study, participants averaged 7 hours 47 minutes of sleep, 10 hours 31 minutes of sitting, and 4 hours 55 minutes of vigorous physical activity per day, according to activity tracker data.
Three in four people got the recommended seven hours of sleep, while the rest slept less (21%) or more than nine hours (4%).
Increased sleep time through activity breaks
Results based on 28 participants showed that after a break from activity, participants slept an average of 27 minutes longer compared to when they remained seated for an extended period of time.
The average sleep duration was 7 hours 12 minutes, compared to 6 hours 45 minutes after prolonged sitting. The times when participants tried to go to sleep were similar, but the average wake-up times were different: participants woke up at an average of 7:35 after the prolonged sitting intervention and at an average of 8:06 after the usual activity break.
Additionally, there were no significant differences in sleep efficiency (uninterrupted sleep) or number of nighttime awakenings between the two interventions, suggesting that the interruptions in activity did not interfere with subsequent sleep, the researchers said.
There were no statistically significant differences in 24-h activity patterns following each intervention, except that compared with prolonged sitting, regular activity breaks reduced total physical activity time by 18 minutes, or less than 2% of total waking time.
Limitations and future research
The researchers acknowledged that their findings have various limitations, including that the study had a small number of participants and was conducted in a laboratory setting, which may not reflect real-world behavior.
The researchers therefore stress that further studies are needed in which more people are surveyed in their normal home environments for a longer period of time.
But still, they state: “These results add to a growing body of evidence showing that, contrary to current sleep recommendations, nighttime exercise does not impair sleep quality.”
And they point out: “Adults accumulate the most sedentary time and consume almost half of their daily energy intake in the evening. Insulin At the moment the sensitivity is low.”
Potential Long-Term Health Benefits
The researchers suggest that extending sleep time through activity breaks may reduce the risk of cardiometabolic disease in the long term, especially for people who get less than the recommended total nightly sleep time.
The strength-training exercises used in the study were easy to do, required no equipment, and could be done while streaming content, which may make people more likely to stick to their routine, the researchers added.
However, they emphasize: “Existing research suggests that nighttime exercise may not have a negative effect on sleep; however, [it] It is unclear what effect this may have on sleep quality.”
For more information on this study, see ” Achieve Better Sleep with Simple Nighttime Activities “.
Reference: “Regular evening activity breaks increase subsequent free-living sleep duration in healthy adults: a randomized crossover trial” by Jennifer T. Gayle, Jillian J. Hazard, Dorothy L. Way, Rachel W. Taylor, and Meredith C. Peddie, June 1, 2024, BMJ Open Sports & Exercise Medicine.
DOI: 10.1136/bmjsem-2023-001774
