Regular Exercise Can Cure Your Insomnia, New Research Says

DLHA Staff Writer

WEDNESDAY, March 3 2024: A new population based study over a 10 year period in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey has found that people who consistently work out two to three times a week for duration of one hour or more per week are less likely to suffer from insomnia, a type of sleep disorder.

The study was published March 26 in the journal BMJ Open.

The paper “indicates strongly that consistency in [physical activity] might be an important factor in optimizing sleep duration and reducing the symptoms of insomnia,” concluded the leaders of the research team.

For the study, researchers surveyed the exercise habits and sleep quality of 4,339 middle-aged adults from 21 hospitals in nine European countries. Participants were specifically asked how often they exercise to the point that they become out of breath or sweaty.

Researchers found that people who persistently worked out at least a few times a week -- totaling at least one hour of exercise weekly, were:

• 42% less likely to find it difficult to fall asleep
• 22% less likely to suffer any symptoms of insomnia
• 40% less likely to suffer more than one insomnia symptom

Symptoms of insomnia include taking a long time to go to sleep, waking in the night and feeling excessively sleepy during the day.

People who consistently exercised also were 55% more likely to get the normal, recommended amount of sleep, i.e., between 6 and 9 hours a night, researchers found. They were 29% less likely to have short sleep less than 6 hours, and 52% less likely to have long sleep of 9 hours or more, results show.

In addition, study participants who became active during the course of the 10 years study were 21% more likely to become normal sleepers than those who remained inactive.

These results conform to other studies that have linked regular exercise with sound sleep, said the researchers in a journal news release.

Two study limitations advanced by the researchers include that the sleep variable studied were during follow up with no correlative information at baseline physical activity and (that all sleep variables studied were obtained through self-reporting by questionnaire with no sleep disorder diagnosis by medical providers or other objective tests

Notwithstanding, the researchers observed that people who work out not only make their bodies tired enough to get good sleep, but they also are more likely to follow a healthy lifestyle.

Source:

Bjornsdottir E, Thorarinsdottir EH, Lindberg E, et al.Association between physical activity over a 10-year period and current insomnia symptoms, sleep duration and daytime sleepiness: a European population-based study. BMJ Open 2024;14:e067197. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067197. Available from: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/14/3/e067197

Related:

Normal sleep: What Africans need to know

Sleep disorders – An African Perspective: Types and Symptoms (Dyssomnias)

Published: April 3, 2024

© 2024. Datelinehealth Africa Inc. All rights reserved.

Permission is given to copy, use and share content for non-commercial purposes without alteration or modification and subject to attribution as to source.