Early risers and night owls alike, everyone appreciates a good night’s sleep. But despite the best intentions, quality sleep can elude us, sometimes to the point of contributing to serious health problems.
Now, a world-first study from the University of South Australia shows that getting a good night’s sleep is linked to how you structure your day, and that exercise is at the heart of sleep quality.
The study examined different components of time use and different aspects of sleep among 1,168 children (average age 12 years) and 1,360 adults (their parents, average age 44 years, mainly mothers). The study found that children and adults with higher levels of sleep from moderate to vigorous physical activity had fewer problems sleeping, reduced tiredness, and better sleep quality.
Australian guidelines indicate that most adults need around eight hours of sleep per night, while children and adolescents need between 8 and 11 hours per night.*
UniSA researcher Dr Lisa Matricciani says understanding the factors that affect sleep quality is vital for good health and wellbeing.
“Despite what we know about sleep, many people still struggle to achieve restful sleep,” says Dr. Matricciani.
“When people think about sleep quality, they tend to focus on adjustments immediately before bed (for example, avoiding screens, not eating too much, and avoiding alcohol), but our research goes beyond this and covers the range of activities we carry out during sleep. day.
“What we found is that our daytime activities are linked to different aspects of our sleep, from sleep quality, sleep efficiency (how much time you spend in bed when you’re actually asleep), and the total number of hours of sleep you get. We sleep at levels of tiredness during the day and when we choose to go to bed.
“Sometimes the activities we choose can directly displace sleep (think kids playing video games late into the night), but other times, it’s how we spend the hours of the day.
“In this study we created different simulations to see how the aspects of time extension and restriction were related to different aspects of sleep.
“We found that if children and adults increased moderate to vigorous physical activity, they would feel less tired, have fewer problems sleeping, and sleep better.
“Interestingly, simply spending more time sleeping predicted more restless sleep.
“Everyone wants to get a good night’s sleep. If it’s simply about being more active during the day, then it may be a relatively achievable goal for most of us.”