People who have low fitness levels have poor sleep quality, a new study shows.
Researchers at the University of Georgia found an association between one's physical activity level and sleeping ability.
"This kind of study is novel," Rodney Dishman, a professor of kinesiology in the College of Education at the University, said in a press release. "In the past, studies mostly used self-report as a means of researching physical activity or measured fitness just once. However, this study closely examines the fitness changes in men and women over a long period of time using an objective measure of cardiorespiratory fitness."
For the study, the researchers examined data collected over 35 years by the Aerobics Centers Longitudinal Study. They followed more than 8,000 participants between 1971 and 2006, aged between 20 and 85 years. Participants' cardiorespiratory fitness on a treadmill every two years, on average, was measured. There was a total of four sessions done at the Cooper Clinic located in Dallas, TX.
At the start of the study, the researchers had noted that none of the participants had sleeping issues. Over the time, they observed that most of the participants started to lose their cardiorespiratory fitness. During the second or third clinic session, some of them did not maintain the same level of physical fitness that was displayed during the first visit. Overall, people's treadmill endurance declined during each subsequent session.
During a check-up, the participants were told to complete a questionnaire that asked them about their health, particularly their sleeping ability. The researchers found that for people aged between 51 and 56 years, every one-minute decrease in their endurance level was tied to an increase in sleeping complaints by 1.7 percent in men and 1.3 percent in women.
The researchers stated that people typically start losing their fitness at the age of 45 years if they stop exercising regularly. Dishman recommends adults to follow the Federal Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. These guidelines state that adults should log in 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week.
"Fitness is much harder to sustain if you don't exercise consistently. Staying active won't cure sleep complaints, but it will reduce the odds of them. The more active you stay, the better off you'll be " Dishman said. "Our findings give an incentive for adults to maintain fitness and continue exercising."
The study was published in the journal, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercises.
