The importance of sleep to overall health cannot be underestimated – it improves mood, increases energy and reduces the risk of disease. Yet many people struggle with restless nights.
In the United States, 39 percent of adults ages 45 to 64 report not getting enough sleep, according to a 2022 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A new study published in the journal BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine suggests a simple but effective strategy for improving sleep duration: brief strength training sessions in the evening.
Based on the research, this new approach could change the way people perceive bedtime routines and offer a practical solution for those who need more sleep.
Conducted by researchers at the University of Otago, New Zealand, the study examined the impact of regular three-minute exercise. It’s even more impactful if they’re done every 30 minutes over a four-hour period in the evening.
28 healthy, non-smoking women aged 18 to 40, who normally sit still in a chair during the workday and evening, participated in the tests wearing activity monitors. Half of them exercised in the evening and the others remained seated for the duration in a controlled laboratory environment.
The results were convincing: women who exercised before bed slept an average of 27.7 minutes longer. Additionally, there were no significant differences in rest efficiency or number of awakenings, indicating that brief exercise did not impair other aspects of sleep quality.
“Given current healthy sleep guidelines, we were surprised to see such a positive impact,” said lead study author Jennifer Gale, a PhD student at the University of Otago.
According to Gale, most traditional sleep hygiene advice discourages vigorous exercise near bedtime because it can raise body temperature and heart rate, which is thought to negatively affect sleep quality. However, this study challenges the typical perception. “Our research found that interrupting the evening ‘doing nothing’ with brief, light-intensity exercise improved sleep duration and did not impair sleep quality,” Gale explained.
The brief and less intense nature of the recommended exercises means they are less likely to raise body temperature and heart rate to levels that could interfere with sleep.
Dr. Raj Dasgupta, associate professor of clinical medicine at Huntington Health in California, emphasized the importance of keeping exercise short and not too intense so that it can help you sleep better without making you too energetic before bed. He did not participate in the research.
Dasgupta said this approach could be particularly useful for people “who spend a lot of time sitting in their daily lives, offering an easy way to combat a more sedentary lifestyle without making drastic changes.”
Gail and her team are currently conducting a second pilot study to investigate how best to support people in taking the right breaks to improve sleep at regular intervals in the evening in a real-world setting.
Resistance training, also known as strength training, involves exercises that cause muscles to contract against external resistance. Resistance can come from your own body weight, free weights, machines or bands.
Common exercises include push-ups, squats and weight lifting. These exercises are designed to improve muscle strength and endurance.
Dasgupta pointed out that the study used “simple and practical” exercises that could be performed without difficulty by most people. He emphasized the health benefits beyond improving sleep, adding that strength training improves quality of life overall and can help you stay healthy as you age.
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