6 hours of sleep may keep you more active than 8 |
People who slept 6 to 7 hours moved significantly more the next day than those who slept 8 hours, according to Australian research tracking 71,000 individuals across 244 geographical regions over 3.5 years. Those who slept 8 hours took 237 fewer steps than those who slept 7 hours, and 339 fewer steps than those who slept 6 hours.
The finding challenges standard sleep recommendations, but the study reveals more nuance. Sleep efficiency (a measure of time in bed actually spent sleeping) predicted next-day activity even more strongly than sleep duration. People with 94% sleep efficiency took 282 more steps than those with 83% efficiency, regardless of the duration of their sleep.
“We demonstrate [...] that only a small fraction of people are able to attain sufficient sleep and adequate physical activity on a routine basis,” explains lead author Josh Fitton, a doctoral researcher at Flinders University. Just 13% of participants achieved both 7 to 9 hours of sleep and 8,000 daily steps.
Interestingly, sleep affected next-day activity far more than exercise influenced sleep — increasing daily steps from 3,000 to 9,000 changed next-night sleep by only a few minutes.
To learn more about why sleep may be more effective than exercise for increasing daily activity, jump to “Between sleep and exercise, choose sleep, research suggests.”
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