Evening Resistance Training Breaks Help Improve Sleep Outcomes

FRIDAY, July 19, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Performing body-weight resistance exercise activity breaks in the evening may improve some sleep outcomes, according to a study published online July 16 in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine.

Jennifer T. Gale, from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, and colleagues sought to determine if performing regular three-minute bouts of resistance exercise spread over four hours in an evening will impact subsequent sleep quantity and quality, sedentary time, and physical activity versus prolonged uninterrupted sitting. The analysis included 28 participants.

The researchers found that compared with prolonged sitting, regular activity breaks increased mean sleep period time and time spent asleep by 29.3 and 27.7 minutes, respectively, on the night of the intervention. For mean sleep efficiency, there was no significant effect. Similarly, there was no effect on wake after sleep onset and number of awakenings. There were no significant differences seen in the subsequent 24-hour and 48-hour physical activity patterns.

“Sleep hygiene recommendations should be reviewed to better reflect the current pool of evidence,” the authors write. “Regularly interrupting prolonged sitting with short bouts of activity breaks is a promising intervention that may improve cardiometabolic health through multiple mechanisms (postprandial metabolism and sleep).”

Abstract/Full Text