Consistency is crucial when it comes to exercise, not only for weight reduction but also for obtaining adequate sleep, as per a study.
According to the University of Missouri, almost one in three Americans suffer with insomnia, making it the most prevalent sleep problem in the country. Since sleep is crucial for both our physical and mental health and because insufficient sleep has been linked to heart disease, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases, and depression, this is a serious public health issue.
The benefits of regular physical activity on sleep quality and its potential to alleviate the symptoms of chronic insomnia have been demonstrated by several research; however, the precise amount of exercise needed remains unclear.
Researchers from all around Europe, under the direction of Reykjavik University in Iceland, attempted to address this issue in the most recent study, which was published in the journal BMJ Open. They did this by examining data from 4,399 participants in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey.
Questions about physical activity frequency and duration, insomnia symptoms, length of sleep each night, and daily tiredness were posed to the participants. People were considered physically active if they worked out for an hour or more, two or more times a week, or more.
Over the course of the 10-year study period, 25% of the participants remained consistently active, 18% became active, and 20% went inactive. The participants were chosen from 21 distinct sites located in nine different European nations. Over the course of the research period, 37% of the participants continued to be sedentary, exercising for less than an hour per week.
Regularly active people tended to weigh slightly less than those in the other activity groups, were younger, and were slightly more likely to be men. The researchers therefore took age, sex, weight, and smoking history into account when adjusting their findings. Participants who engaged in consistent physical activity two to three times a week during the study period showed a 42 percent lower likelihood of experiencing difficulty falling asleep at night and a 22 percent lower likelihood of experiencing any symptom of insomnia, even after these adjustments.
Participants who engaged in consistent physical activity were also more likely to get between six and nine hours of sleep—neither too little nor too much.
“Our results are in line with previous studies that have shown the beneficial effect of [physical activity] on symptoms of insomnia, but the current study additionally shows the importance of consistency in exercising over time, because the association was lost for initially active subjects who became inactive,” according to the authors.
