Exercise Close to Bedtime May Be Bad for Sleep

Research has found that taking part in high-intensity exercise less than two hours before you go to bed may negatively affect how well you sleep.

Exercise is known to improve sleep in most cases. However, researchers from Concordia University in Canada wanted to find out if the time you exercise could affect how well you sleep too.

The researchers reviewed 15 studies to see how one session of exercise before bed affected the sleep of healthy adults aged 18 to 50. Their results were published in Sleep Medicine Reviews.

The studies had data from a total of 194 people. The researchers looked at whether people exercised during the early or late evening, and how long they waited before going to bed — less than two hours, around two hours, or two to four hours.

The researchers also looked at how fit the study participants were, how long they spent exercising and how intense their exercise was.

It was found that, in general, when exercise ended less than two hours before bed, people slept worse. Participants who exercised too close to when they went to bed took longer to go to sleep, and slept for a shorter amount of time.

However, the study also found that intense exercise done for between 30 and 60 minutes over two hours before bed helped people fall asleep sooner and sleep better. It was also best to exercise at the same time each day.

Cycling was found to be the best exercise to help with sleep.

Questions

1. How many studies did the researchers review?

2. What impact did exercising too close to bedtime have on participants' sleep?

3. What is the best exercise to help with sleep, according to the study?

出处：头条号 @生活中学习英语