Short evening movement breaks added sleep in a small trial.
Interrupting a seated evening with brief bodyweight activity was followed by more time asleep that night.
The 30-second takeaway
After an evening with short activity breaks, participants slept about 28 minutes longer than after continuous sitting. This challenges the idea that every kind of evening exercise disrupts sleep. But sleep was a secondary outcome, the sample was small, and the result describes one subsequent night rather than a lasting improvement or insomnia treatment.
A short, small trial cannot establish a reliable long-term sleep gain or an effect in people with sleep disorders.
What researchers found
Time asleep that night
Activity breaks versus continuous sitting; 95% confidence interval 2.3–52.4 minutes. Measured with a wrist device.
A fairly ordinary evening
Participants completed both conditions in a randomized order, then went home. The activity consisted of brief bodyweight resistance exercises.
A specific result
Time asleep increased, while several other sleep measures did not change significantly. The result concerns brief interruptions to sitting, not every evening workout.
The original publication
Evening regular activity breaks extend subsequent free-living sleep time in healthy adults: a randomised crossover trial
Jennifer T. Gale et al.
BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine · 2024
- PubMed ID
- 39027425
- Record checked
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