Teens, here's how you can sleep better and for longer hours
| May 23, 2019, 10:55 IST
As adults, we have a tough time trying to maintain a balance between our work and life. But if there's someone who has it tougher, it has to be teens. With the amount of pressure they face from school, peers, their parents and whatnot, it's difficult to imagine how they'd find a balance. This is also why most of them are unable to get an adequate amount of exercise they need at that age. However, a new study has found that working out can have a direct correlation to how well these teenagers can sleep.
They found that not only does exercise promote better health and endurance but it can also promote better sleep for these teenagers. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University in the US conducted the study and found that teenagers who worked out during the day had a much better sleep cycle as compared to teens who got no exercise at all.
"Adolescence is a critical period to obtain adequate sleep, as sleep can affect cognitive and classroom performance, stress, and eating behaviours," said Lindsay Master, 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.
As per the study, teens who worked out for an extra hour during the day got 10 minutes extra sleep, fell asleep 18 minutes earlier and had at least 1% better sleep than teens who didn't exercise at all. They also found that teens who slept too much during the day had a hard time falling asleep at night. "You can think of these relationships between physical activity and sleep almost like a teeter totter," said another professor.
"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," the professor added. "...if we can encourage people to engage in more physical activity and better sleep health behaviours on a more regular basis, it could improve their health over time," he continued.
Researchers conducted the study on 417 US teenagers who were asked to wear accelerometers on their wrists and hips which helped measure their 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 behaviour, 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.
They found that not only does exercise promote better health and endurance but it can also promote better sleep for these teenagers. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University in the US conducted the study and found that teenagers who worked out during the day had a much better sleep cycle as compared to teens who got no exercise at all.
"Adolescence is a critical period to obtain adequate sleep, as sleep can affect cognitive and classroom performance, stress, and eating behaviours," said Lindsay Master, 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.
As per the study, teens who worked out for an extra hour during the day got 10 minutes extra sleep, fell asleep 18 minutes earlier and had at least 1% better sleep than teens who didn't exercise at all. They also found that teens who slept too much during the day had a hard time falling asleep at night. "You can think of these relationships between physical activity and sleep almost like a teeter totter," said another professor.
"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," the professor added. "...if we can encourage people to engage in more physical activity and better sleep health behaviours on a more regular basis, it could improve their health over time," he continued.
Researchers conducted the study on 417 US teenagers who were asked to wear accelerometers on their wrists and hips which helped measure their 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 behaviour, 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.