Activities Like Walking, Gardening May Improve Sleep

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found that participating in certain physical activities including walking, biking, gardening, weight-lifting, yoga and Pilates can help some sleep better.

For the study, they analyzed data on sleep and physical activity from over 429,000 adults in the 2013 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. They measured whether each of 10 types of activities were associated with the typical amount of sleep that was relative to both walking and no activity. Survey respondents were asked what type of physical activity they spent the most time doing in the past month and also asked how much sleep they got within a typical 24-hour period.

"These results are consistent with the growing scientific literature on the role of sleep in human performance," said Michael Grandner, PhD, instructor in Psychiatry and member of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Neurobiology at Penn, in a news release. "Lab studies show that lack of sleep is associated with poor physical and mental performance, and this study shows us that this is consistent with real-world data as well. Since these results are correlational, more studies are needed to help us understand whether certain kinds of physical activity can actually improve or worsen sleep, and how sleep habits help or hurt a person's ability to engage in specific types of activity."

Findings revealed that while certain physical activities, including household chores and childcare could disrupt sleep habits, things like walking, biking, gardening, running, weight-lifting, golfing and Pilates, etc. could help to improve sleep habits, even after adjusting for factors such as age, education level, sex and body mass index (BMI).

More information regarding the findings will be presented at Sleep 2015, the 29th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.

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