Newsletter #175: Exercise to Combat Poor Sleep 🥱
Hello again, humanOS friends! This week, we examined some recent research examining how physical activity and sleep interact with one another.
Inadequate sleep is certainly not a new problem, however it is particularly relevant now, as the pandemic appears to have had a largely deleterious impact on sleep for people around the world. One international survey, for instance, found that about 56% of respondents were experiencing symptoms of insomnia. Fortunately, we came across some research suggesting that exercise might help alleviate the negative health impact of sleep loss, as well as an encouraging study finding that mindfulness training can boost sleep in kids.
To learn more, scroll on down 👇🏼
This Week’s Research Highlights
🏃 Meeting established physical activity guidelines offsets the increased health risk conferred by poor sleep.
Researchers with the University of Sydney analyzed data on physical activity levels and multiple aspects of sleep in 380,055 middle-aged participants in the UK Biobank study. They divided the subjects into groups based on sleep health using a validated composite sleep score. After an average follow up of around 11 years, they found (unsurprisingly) that people with poor sleep overall had a 23% higher risk of premature death, a 39% higher risk of dying from heart disease, and a 13% higher risk of dying from cancer, when compared to those with healthy sleep. However, when they added in the physical activity data, things got a bit more interesting. People who had poor sleep and didn’t exercise were at the highest risk - as you’d expect. But individuals who had poor sleep yet who also managed to meet WHO physical activity guidelines appeared to be somewhat protected. For instance, people with poor sleep and inadequate physical activity had a 45% higher risk of dying from cancer, while individuals who got poor sleep but who exercised a lot did not have a significantly higher risk of cancer-related mortality.
🚴 High intensity interval training mitigates the detrimental physiological effects of chronic sleep loss.
A team of researchers (including the awesome Stu Phillips, whom we interviewed on the podcast a while back) recruited 24 healthy young men and allocated them into three experimental groups: 1) normal sleep, meaning 8 hours in bed per night for five nights; 2) sleep restriction, meaning 4 hours in bed per night for five nights; and 3) sleep restriction + exercise, meaning 4 hours in bed per night for five nights plus three high-intensity interval exercise sessions during the intervention period. The researchers found that the sleep restriction group had decreased glucose tolerance after the intervention (22% higher AUC), which in turn was associated with poorer mitochondrial respiratory function as well as a lower rate of sarcoplasmic protein synthesis (a proxy for mitochondrial protein synthesis). However, the individuals who were subjected to sleep deprivation and who also performed high intensity intervals did not experience this impairment in mitochondrial function and glucose tolerance. Incidentally, the exercise protocol that was used in this study was intense but very efficient: just ten 60-second intervals on a stationary bike, punctuated by 75 seconds of active recovery.
🧘 Mindfulness training may help children sleep better.
This is a really cool study. Researchers at Stanford looked at children in two low-income communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. One community served as a control, and the other received a mindfulness curriculum at their school which consisted of breathing exercises, yoga, and training to bring one’s attention to the present and techniques to cope with stress.
Over the two-year study period, children in the control group experienced a decline in total sleep of 63 minutes on average (which is actually pretty common as kids get a little older), while REM sleep held steady. In contrast, the intervention group gained 74 minutes of total sleep and 24 minutes of REM sleep. That is an impressive finding, especially since the training that these kids received did not directly involve sleep hygiene, and of course sleep plays such a crucial role in growth and development for young people.
Random Trivia Question of the Week
🤔 What is the world record for highest scoreline in a game of soccer? (The story behind this lopsided result is also pretty crazy.)
💡 ANSWER
Podcasts We Loved This Week
• David Jacobs: Food synergy and the top-down approach to nutrition research. Via Sigma Nutrition Radio.
• Annie Murphy Paul: Modern work culture is built on a broken model of the mind. Via The Ezra Klein Show.
Products We Are Enjoying
Chamomile tea
This tea is super tasty and a solid choice for when you’re about to go to bed, as a recent meta-analysis suggested that chamomile may improve sleep quality. How come? It’s not really clear, but perhaps because chamomile is one of the richest sources of apigenin amongst edible plants, and a number of studies have suggested that apigenin has mild anxiolytic and antidepressant effects in animal models. And the long term effects on health may be even more compelling.
For instance, one study found that women who drank chamomile tea regularly showed a 29% reduced risk of all-cause mortality compared to non-users, even after adjusting for health behaviors and other confounders. Good stuff.
humanOS Catalog Feature of the Week
Thank you so much for reading, and see y'all next week!