Resistance exercise may be superior to aerobic exercise for better sleep, important for cardiovascular health
March 7, 2022. 12:05 p.m.
Endurance exercise may be superior to aerobic exercise for better sleep, and sleep is important for cardiovascular health, according to preliminary research to be presented at the 2022 Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Conference at American Heart Association.
“It is increasingly recognized that getting enough sleep, especially high-quality sleep, is important for health, including cardiovascular health. Unfortunately, more than a third of Americans don’t get enough sleep on a regular basis,” says the author of the study. study, Dr. Angelique Brellenthin, associate professor of kinesiology at the Iowa State University (United States)-. Aerobic activity is often recommended to improve sleep, but very little is known regarding the effects of resistance exercise versus aerobic exercise on sleep.”
The scientific report of Advisory Committee for the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines of the United States Department of Health and Human Services identified the need for more research on endurance exercise and sleep outcomes. “Our study is one of the largest and longest exercise trials in a general adult population to directly compare the effects of different types of exercise on multiple sleep parameters,” she notes.
Previous research has confirmed that not getting enough sleep (the recommended amount for adults is seven to eight hours a day) or having poor-quality sleep increases risks of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and atherosclerosiswhich occurs when fatty deposits build up in the arteries.
Effects of sleep deprivation
Not getting enough sleep is linked to weight gain, diabetes, and inflammation, all of which can worsen cardiovascular disease. Sleeping too much or too little has also been shown to increase risk of stroke, heart attack, and death.
For this study, the researchers recruited 386 adults who met the criteria for overweight or obesity, that is, a body mass index of 25-40 kg/m2. The participants were inactive and had elevated blood pressure, which measured between 120-139 mm Hg systolic (upper number) and 80-89 mm Hg diastolic (lower number).
Study design
The researchers also measured sleep duration; sleep efficiency (how much time is actually asleep divided by the total time the individual is in bed); sleep latency (how long it takes to fall asleep following getting into bed); and sleep disturbances (how often sleep is disturbed by things like being too hot or too cold, snoring or coughing, having to go to the bathroom, or having pain).
According to the study, more than a third (35%) of the study participants had poor quality sleep at the start of the study. Among the 42% of participants who did not get at least 7 hours of sleep at the start of the study, the sleep duration increased by an average of 40 minutes in 12 months for the resistance exercise group, compared with an increase of regarding 23 minutes in the aerobic exercise group, regarding 17 minutes in the combined exercise group, and regarding 15 minutes in the control group.
Sleep efficiency increased in the resistance exercise and combined exercise groups, but not in the aerobic or non-exercise groups.
Sleep latency decreased slightly, by 3 minutes, in the group assigned to resistance exercise only, with no notable changes in latency in the other groups of participants. Sleep quality and sleep disturbances improved somewhat in all groups, including the group that did not exercise.
According to these results, interventions focused on resistance exercises they may be a new way to promote better sleep and improve cardiovascular health.
“Although both aerobic and resistance exercise are important for overall health, our results suggest that resistance exercise may be superior when it comes to improving nighttime sleep,” Brellenthin says.
“Resistance exercise significantly improved sleep duration and efficiency, which are critical indicators of sleep quality that reflect how well a person falls asleep and stays asleep throughout the night,” he continues. your sleep has gotten noticeably worse over the past two stressful years, consider incorporate two or more resistance exercise training sessions into your routine of regular exercise to improve your overall muscle and bone health, as well as your sleep.
