Editor’s Note: Dana Santas, known as “Mobility Makers“, is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports and author of the book “Practical Solutions for Back Pain Relief”.
CNN
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The importance of sleep for overall health cannot be overstated—it improves mood, increases energy, and lowers disease risk, to name a few benefits. Yet many people struggle to get restful nights. In the United States, 39% of adults ages 45 to 64 say they don’t get enough sleep, according to a 2022 survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Now, a small efficacy study published July 16 in the journal BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine suggests a simple but effective strategy to improve sleep duration: incorporating short resistance or strength training breaks in the evening.
Based on the findings, this novel approach could change the way people think about bedtime routines and provide a practical solution for those who need more sleep.
The small study was conducted by researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand and examined the effects of regular three-minute resistance exercise every 30 minutes over a four-hour period in the evening.
Twenty-eight healthy, nonsmoking female subjects aged 18 to 40 years who typically sat for long periods during the workday and evening wore activity monitors and either took activity breaks or remained seated the entire time in a supervised laboratory environment.
The results were compelling: participants slept an average of 27.7 minutes longer when they took regular exercise breaks than when they sat continuously. In addition, there were no significant differences in sleep efficiency or the number of awakenings, suggesting that the short exercise sessions did not affect other aspects of sleep quality.
Even the researchers said the results were unexpected. “Given current sleep hygiene guidelines, we were surprised to see such a positive impact on sleep,” said lead study author Jennifer Gale, a PhD student in human nutrition at the University of Otago.
According to Gale, most traditional sleep hygiene advice discourages prolonged periods of vigorous exercise close to bedtime because they can increase body temperature and heart rate, which are commonly believed to negatively impact sleep quality. But this study refutes that notion. “Our research found that interrupting evening sitting time with short periods of light exercise improves sleep duration and does not affect sleep quality,” Gale added via email.
The study authors say it’s more about doing the right exercises at the right time to improve sleep rather than hinder it. Because the study’s exercises are short and less intense, they’re less likely to raise body temperature and heart rate to levels that could potentially interfere with sleep.
Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical medicine at Huntington Health in California, stressed the importance of keeping the exercise brief and not too intense so that it can help you sleep better without causing you to have excessive energy before bed. He was not involved in the study.
Dasgupta said this approach could be particularly helpful for those “who spend a lot of time sitting in their daily lives, as it offers a simple way to counteract a more sedentary lifestyle without having to make significant adjustments.”
Gale and her team are currently conducting a follow-up pilot study to investigate how best to support people in a real-world setting to take appropriate sleep-promoting activity breaks at regular intervals throughout the evening.
Resistance training, also called strength training, involves exercises in which muscles contract against an external resistance. The resistance can be provided by your own body weight, free weights, machines, or resistance bands.
Common resistance training exercises include push-ups, squats, and weight lifting. These exercises are designed to improve muscle strength and endurance by working against a force.
Dasgupta said the study used “simple and practical” resistance exercises that most people could do. He stressed the health benefits beyond improving sleep, adding that strength training improves quality of life and can help you remain independent as you age.
Below are the three specific exercises used in the study, along with another set of comparable alternatives for variety. Based on the research, any similar exercises with light to moderate resistance should work.
Important Note: Consult your physician before beginning this or any new exercise program. As always, listen to your body and adjust intensity and duration as needed to find what works best for you.
Learning exercises:
• Squats on a chair: From a seated position, stand up without using your hands and sit back down. Repeat the exercise for 20 seconds.
• Calf raises: Stand on your toes and then lower your calves back down. Repeat for 20 seconds.
• Standing knee raises with extended hip extensions: Alternately raise each knee to the chest and then extend the leg behind you, for 20 seconds each time. Use the back of a chair or a wall for support if needed.
Alternative exercises:
• Marching in place: Raise your knees alternately to hip height while swinging your arms, repeat for 20 seconds.
• Wall push-ups: Stand facing a wall so that you can place your hands against the wall at shoulder height with your arms straight and palms facing down. Perform wall push-ups for 20 seconds.
• Lateral leg raises: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, raise one leg to the side and then lower it back down. Repeat for 10 seconds on each side for a total of 20 seconds. Use the back of a chair or a wall to help you balance.
Repeat a set or any variation of the three exercises above three times, for a total of three minutes, every 30 minutes for four hours in the evening. Start these breaks around 4 or 5 p.m. and finish at least an hour before your planned bedtime to allow your body to calm down and prepare for rest. In total, that adds up to 24 minutes of exercise per evening.
Sitting for long periods, especially in the evening, can have negative health effects, including an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes. By engaging in short bursts of activity, people can break up their sedentary time and potentially reduce some of these risks.
According to the study results, evening activity breaks may not only improve sleep, but also benefit overall health by improving postprandial metabolism – the way your body processes the nutrients you eat – and reducing the risk of cardiometabolic disease. Gale called this result one of the study’s key findings, saying that breaking up your evening sitting time has the potential to improve your health in “several ways.” “The key is to get up and move frequently,” she added.
Dasgupta agreed, saying the results were “very promising” and allowed for valuable conclusions despite the small size of the study.
“Incorporating short, simple, easy strength exercise breaks into your evening routine could be an easy way to improve your sleep and health,” he said.
So why not give it a try tonight? A few short breaks from exercise could be enough to help you sleep better.
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