Want a good night’s sleep? You’re better off hitting the gym than going for a run, study finds
A recent article from the daily mail says – It’s better to hit the gym than go for a run if you want a good night’s sleep, a study suggests
For sleep-deprived people, lifting weights or doing push-ups could provide 17 more minutes of sleep a night compared to going for a jog or cycle, researchers found.
It is thought that tiny tears in your muscles after strength-training workouts may require more sleep to heal properly.
The study looked at 386 overweight or obese people, aged 35 to 70, who lived sedentary lives and had relatively high blood pressure.
They were split into four groups, with one group doing no exercise and another spending three hours a week of strength training on gym machines.
A third group did three hours of weekly aerobic work, running on a treadmill or using an exercise bike. The final group did a combination of both types of exercise.
All participants in the study reported their quality of sleep, how long they slept for and how much of their time in bed was actually spent asleep.
Among study participants not getting at least seven hours of sleep when they started the exercise sessions, those doing running and cycling or using a cross-trainer gained 23 minutes of sleep a night on average.
But that rose to 40 additional minutes of sleep for those doing the strength training.
