New research shows that light activity before bed can help you get a more restful slumber.
We all know the drill: get home from work (or close the laptop, if you’re remote), make dinner, eat, and veg in front of the television until it’s time to go to bed. Rinse and repeat. Unwinding after work is a long-standing tradition that many of us still uphold. For the most part, we know better than to try and exercise before bed anyway; for a long time, we’ve been told that vigorous activity before bed can interfere with our quality of sleep. (And sleep is important; even more reason to sit and watch one more episode…)
But times are changing, and so are certain exercise recommendations. Research coming out of The University of Otago suggests exercise in the evening, before bed, can actually improve our sleep–a concept that was previously disregarded. The key? The exercise should come in small intervals.
A LITTLE ACTIVITY, EVERY 30 MINUTES
Sleep experts have long warned that high intensity exercise or longer workouts increase our body’s temperature and heart rate, which in the evenings can decrease our sleep quality. But a new study published in BMJ Open Sport and Exercise Medicine found that smaller bursts of exercise, every thirty minutes, can contribute to an added half hour of sleep. And for those of us who have trouble drifting off… this is very good news!
THE STUDY
Noting the negative consequences of intense exercise before bedtime, researchers took a different approach. They set out to discover if light intensity exercise, in small intervals, would have the same effect. Study participants spent a minimum of two evenings sitting for at least four hours before going to bed (although we have to assume they took bathroom breaks!). Then the participants spent one evening sitting for four hours, but with three-minute bouts of light intensity exercise, about every half hour. The exercises? Chair squats, calf raises, and standing knee raises. On the evenings where their prolonged sitting was interrupted with a little activity, the participants enjoyed an extra thirty minutes of slumber. Add that to the fact that two to three minutes of activity every half hour helps decrease the fat and sugar in our blood stream after eating, and we really have no more excuses not to get up and move!
THE TAKEAWAY
Look, we’re smart people. We all know that sitting for too long is detrimental to our health – no matter how comfy and cozy we are, or how aggravating our workday was. Sitting without movement for a long period of time puts us at risk for things like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even death. Although the participants in the study all completed simple, bodyweight exercises that didn’t interrupt their TV show, the researchers believe walking around, marching on the spot, or dancing will have similar results. So, get up! Set a timer if you have to, and make sure every half hour is filled with a few minutes of movement. An extra thirty minutes of sleep is definitely worth dancing around the living room for at least one Beyonce song. Have fun! Get silly with it!
