Sleep is one of the most important factors to our overall health and wellbeing, with a new study finding that individuals who engage in consistent aerobic fitness get a higher quality and quantity of sleep each night. The study, published by the University of Saskatchewan, followed 114 individuals between the ages of 30-55, from 2015-2019, tracking physical fitness, grip strength, and sleep quality.
The results found that those with a higher aerobic fitness level sleep longer, averaging at 7.04 hours compared to the 6.61 hours averaged by those that were less physically fit. The quality of the sleep for those who participated in aerobic fitness was also shown to be higher, with participants citing feeling more well-rested in the morning and were able to fall asleep faster and stay asleep throughout the night in comparison to their less-fit counterparts.
Many factors can contribute to quality of sleep, with stress and lifestyle being large indicators of sleep quality and duration. Exercise has been consistently proven to improve mental health, which can decrease overall stress levels and possibly be a contributing piece in the correlation between sleep and fitness.
