A recent study suggests that resistance exercise ‘activity breaks’ at night could improve sleep length, contrary to traditional recommendations.
- Resistance exercise ‘activity breaks’ at night may improve sleep length according to a small comparative study published in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine.
- Participants who did three minutes of simple resistance exercise every 30 minutes over a four-hour period slept an additional 27 minutes on average compared to prolonged sitting.
- The study involved 30 non-smokers aged 18 to 40 who reported high sedentary time during the day and was conducted in a controlled laboratory environment.
- Regular activity breaks did not disrupt subsequent sleep, did not significantly impact activity patterns, and did not affect sleep efficiency or number of awakenings during the night.
- Further studies involving larger numbers of participants in their normal home environment are needed to explore the impact of resistance exercise ‘activity breaks’ on sleep quality in more detail.
Source link
Internal Medicine, Sleep Medicine, Physical Therapy