Daily Exercise Can Help Teens Get Enough Sleep

Daily exercise can do more good than harm to your sleep. A new study highlights that teens who exercise every day can get more sleep at night, reports a new study.

Exercise not only helps in promoting strength and endurance but also improves the quality of your sleep at night, say researchers.

Sleep - Overview and Definition
Sleep is a behavioral state of restricted physical activity. It is controlled by our internal biological clock.

‘Start exercising for better sleep: Regular exercise can ultimately set the stage for a good night's sleep. So, hurry up, build a good workout routine to get more sleep.’
Read More..

Tweet it Now

In a new study, the researchers from Pennsylvania State University, US observed that teenagers who work out during the day tend to sleep longer than those who don't exercise at all.

"Adolescence is a critical period to obtain adequate sleep, as sleep can affect cognitive and classroom performance, stress, and eating behaviors," said Lindsay Master, a data scientist at Pennsylvania State University, US.

"Our research suggests that encouraging adolescents to spend more time exercising during the day may help their sleep health later that night," Master added.

Exercise and Fitness - Benefits - Classification - Options - Kick Off
Exercise is about revamping your lifestyle, not just weight loss. Exercise to get healthy – that way, you’ll last longer at it and get better results.

The study's findings, published in Scientific Reports journal, showed that the teenagers, who did an extra hour of workout during the day, fell asleep 18 minutes earlier, 10 minutes longer and had about one percent greater sleep experience at night.

Moreover, the study also found that the teenagers, who slept for more minutes during the day, couldn't have an adequate sleep at night.

Just 1 Week Away from Phones, Laptops Can Ward Off Sleep Problems in Teens
Too much screen time is bad for teens. However, staying away from mobile phones, laptops, and tablets for just one week can help them sleep well and reduce symptoms of fatigue, lack of concentration and bad mood, reveals a new study.

"You can think of these relationships between physical activity and sleep almost like a teeter totter," noted Orfeu Buxton, Professor at Penn State.

"When you're getting more steps, essentially, your sleep begins earlier, expands in duration, and is more efficient. Whereas if you're spending more time sedentary, it's like sitting on your sleep health: sleep length and quality goes down," Buxton asserted.

Sound Sleep Essential for Good Working Memory
Strong links between working memory -- a fundamental building block of a functioning mind -- and three health-related factors: sleep, age, and depressed mood have been discovered.

The researchers specified that the beneficial effects of exercise and sleep go together.

"...if we can encourage people to engage in more physical activity and better sleep health behaviors on a more regular basis, it could improve their health over time," Buxton affirmed.

For the study, the researchers used data from 417 US teenagers. The participants wore accelerometers on their wrists and hips to measure sleep and physical activity for one week.

"One of the strengths of this study was using the devices to get precise measurements about sleep and activity instead of asking participants about their own behavior, which can sometimes be skewed," Master pointed out.

"The hip device measured activity during the day, and the wrist device measured what time the participants fell asleep and woke up, and also how efficiently they slept, which means how often they were sleeping versus tossing and turning," he noted.

Source-IANS