Should we avoid playing sports before going to sleep? Scientists respond and provide some clarification on the effects of exercise on sleep.
Certainly, doing sports is good for your health. But a common misconception is that you should not practice it just before sleeping. Is this true and how long before bedtime does it matter? Scientists responded. Some sleep four hours voluntarily (like Prime Minister Gabriel Attal), but others have serious sleep problems and are curious to have their opinion.
We all have certainties on this topic. The mattress has a significant role to play. Catching up on sleep on the weekend has consequences. And what about physical exercise? For Joy Perrier and Nicolas Bessot, it indeed has an impact. Sleep physiology researchers from the University and Caen University Hospital carried out with other scientists a study on the subject, published in Frontiers.
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Sport before sleeping: to avoid?
Asked by BFM TVresearchers concluded that exercising before sleeping has a “significant effect, a reduction in the quality of sleep“. Something that surprised them: the sport in question can be an endurance activity like cycling or running, as well as a resistance activity like bodybuilding. Professor Nicolas Bessot explains: “Different physiological responses were expected for these two types of activities”. But that was not the case : “Our initial hypothesis was that resistance exercise should have less impact on sleep and even induce sleep. But, in the end, that’s not at all what we found”.
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Sleep is less effective when you exercise two hours before going to bed. The calculation was made between the time spent in bed and the time spent asleep, explains Joy Perrier. But she puts their results into perspective: sleep efficiency decreases by only 1.5%, “which is nothing“However, the people studied were young and did not suffer from any sleep disorders. The effects of sport before sleeping are therefore “negligible” and the beneficial effects of sport on health are well known according to researchers. As for intimate physical relationships, on the contrary they have a good effect on sleep since they allow the secretion of endorphins. To the wise…
Editor for Aufeminin since 2022, Charlotte is passionate about cinema, French and international, and a fortune reader. Curious about everything, she talks as much about personalities as…