Want to Exercise More? Go to Bed Earlier

"The researchers found a strong link between bedtime and how active people were the following day. Specifically, those who went to bed earlier were far more likely to engage in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity ( MVPA) compared to night owls. The sweet spot appeared to be a 9 p.m. bedtime: People who turned in three hours before midnight logged about 30 more minutes of MVPA per day than those who went to bed at 1 a.m. Even modest shifts mattered."

"It's well established that regular physical activity improves sleep quality and that good sleep improves athletic performance. But this study addresses a surprisingly understudied question: Does your bedtime predict how active you'll be tomorrow? By using objective data from wearables instead of notoriously unreliable self-reports, researchers were able to tease out the distinct roles of sleep duration (how long you sleep) and timing (what time you go to bed and wake up)."

Wearable sensor data from more than 100,000 people linked bedtime timing and sleep duration to next-day physical activity. Earlier bedtimes were strongly associated with higher minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). A 9 p.m. bedtime correlated with about 30 additional minutes of MVPA compared with a 1 a.m. bedtime. Even modest shifts mattered: moving an average 11 p.m. bedtime 30 minutes earlier was associated with more next-day activity. Objective wearable measurements allowed separation of sleep duration and timing effects, and results indicate sleep timing may exert a larger influence on daily exercise than previously recognized.

Read at Psychology Today