Did you know that those who exercise before bed rest better?

copy Study “The study allows us to better understand whether physical activity should be discouraged (or not) at the end of the day.” Ensures the team of Serge Brand, from the University of Basel, in Switzerland. “The results also have practical application. For most adults and working parents, the evening is the only opportunity to exercise,” he added. The authors tested 52 Swiss high school students who were 19 years old. They all played sports two or three times a week. Participants followed their normal routine on the day of the study. Including 65-90 minutes of sports practice at night. An hour and a half before your usual bedtime. Before going to bed, the students rated their mood and how hungry they felt and answered a questionnaire to assess the intensity of the exercise. That night, they slept with a device to record sleep patterns (sleep EEG). Results The team observed that the participants who had suffered the most fatigue during the exercise fell asleep faster. They also had fewer nighttime awakenings and achieved deeper sleep than those who had exercised less intensely. High-intensity exercise also caused more fatigue, better mood, and less hunger during the night. The same thing emerged from the couple’s responses. participants when they wake up, according to the magazine Sleep Medicine. The results contradict a recent study in which participants who had exercised at night slept as well as those who had not exercised. Dr. Phyllis Zee of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago called the new data “interesting.” “As (the authors) say, other studies had shown that exercising before bed, perhaps not as close to bed as in this study, does not affect sleep,” Zee said. “One of the reasons you achieve deeper sleep after exercising more intensely is that sleep helps with energy balance and metabolism. And therefore, what was done is increased the metabolic demand for sleep,” he added. Zee pointed out some limitations of the study that the authors also acknowledged. For example, only young, healthy adults participated. Therefore, the results cannot be extrapolated to other adults. “It’s a very specific group,” said Zee, who also commented that the results could vary beyond a single night. “If a person exercises every night, they probably delay their sleep schedule a little,” he said. In any case, he maintained that it is better to exercise at night than not at all. Especially those who do not have problems sleeping. Meanwhile, “people who have trouble falling asleep should not do physical activity so close to bedtime,” he concluded.