Evening resistance exercises may enhance sleep duration by approximately 27 minutes, suggests a study challenging traditional advice against intense pre-sleep exercise. Research indicates that evening resistance exercises can extend sleep by an average of 27 minutes without affecting sleep quality. The study, involving 30 participants, contrasts with guidelines advising against intense pre-sleep exercise, highlighting potential long-term health benefits.
Resistance exercise ‘activity breaks’ at night may improve sleep length, suggest the findings of a small comparative study published in the open access journal BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine. Three-minute breaks every 30 minutes over a period of 4 hours may be all that’s needed, the findings indicate. Current recommendations discourage intense exercise before going to bed, on the grounds that it increases body temperature and heart rate, which can result in poorer sleep quality, say the researchers.
Exploring the Impact of Activity Breaks on Sleep While activity breaks can improve metabolism after a meal, it’s not clear if they have any impact on sleep. Poor sleep is associated with an increased risk of cardiometabolic disorders, such as coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes, explain the researchers. To explore this further, the researchers recruited 30 non-smokers, aged 18 to 40, to their study.
All of them reported clocking up more than 5 hours of sedentary time during the day at work and 2 hours in the eve.