Most people find that ageing causes people to have a harder time falling asleep, and that they wake up more during the night like never before.
Would you believe that simple exercises before going to bed help can be good for you? This conflicts with many studies finding exercise, especially vigorous exercise, in the evening results in a restless night in bed.
A new study from New Zealand and published in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, on Tuesday, July 16, found that participants who did three-minute exercise breaks every 30 minutes over a period of four hours starting between 5pm and 5.30pm, with the exercises included body weight resistance training like chair squats and calf raises, slept for an average of 27 minutes longer than those a part of the control group who were sedentary for four hours.
The researchers from the University of Otago recruited 30 participants aged up to 40 for the study. All of them reported clocking up more than five hours of sedentary time during the day at work and two hours in the evening.
Current recommendations discourage intense exercise before winding down for the night, because it increases body temperature and heart rate.
Before the experiment, participants spent an average of seven hours and 47 minutes asleep. But analysis revealed that after the activity breaks, they slept for an additional 27 minutes on average, compared with the other session.
There were also no significant differences in the participant’s sleep. They did not wake up any more during the night after completing the exercise.
Poor sleep is associated with an increased risk of cardiometabolic disorders, such as coronary heart disease.
The team said: “These results add to a growing body of evidence that indicates evening exercise does not disrupt sleep quality, despite current sleep recommendations to the contrary.”