Relationships between sleep, physical activity and human health

Abstract

Although sleep and exercise may seem to be mediated by completely different physiological mechanisms, there is growing evidence for clinically important relationships between these two behaviors. It is known that passive body heating facilitates the nocturnal sleep of healthy elderly people with insomnia. This finding supports the hypothesis that changes in body temperature trigger somnogenic brain areas to initiate sleep. Nevertheless, little is known about how the core and distal thermoregulatory responses to exercise fit into this hypothesis. Such knowledge could also help in reducing sleep problems associated with nocturnal shiftwork. It is difficult to incorporate physical activity into a shiftworker's lifestyle, since it is already disrupted in terms of family commitments and eating habits. A multi-research strategy is needed to identify what the optimal amounts and timing of physical activity are for reducing shiftwork-related sleep problems. The relationships between sleep, exercise and diet are also important, given the recently reported associations between short sleep length and obesity. The cardiovascular safety of exercise timing should also be considered, since recent data suggest that the reactivity of blood pressure to a change in general physical activity is highest during the morning. This time is associated with an increased risk in general of a sudden cardiac event, but more research work is needed to separate the influences of light, posture and exercise per se on the haemodynamic responses to sleep and physical activity following sleep taken at night and during the day as a nap.

Associations among physical activity, comorbidities, depressive symptoms and health-related quality of life in type 2 diabetes

“…Lifestyle intervention programs for T2DM have been previously verified in many controlled trials: PA shows better effects on glycemic control and blood pressure than other therapies alone (12,13). Resistance training (14), isolated aerobic exercise, (15) and the combination of them (16) can improve glycemic adjustments; overall, the beneficial effects of exercise on physical fitness, disease symptoms, and quality of life in T2DM are strong (17)(18)(19)(20)(21). However, despite all these evidences, most patients remain sedentary (22,23).…”

Insomnia Symptoms, Daytime Naps And Physical Leisure Activities In The Elderly: FIBRA Study Campinas

“…Insomnia is the most prevalent sleep disorder in the elderly (9) population and probably contributes to the overuse of medication to sleep, because this pharmacological method has been widely used to solve this problem (11,24) . Considering the undesirable effects of these drugs in the elderly, such fact has led to the search for non-pharmacological alternatives to improve the quality of sleep and reduce insomnia symptoms in this age group.…”

“…Authors attribute the observed improvement to the fact that sleeping is a biological function directed at the conservation of energy and replacement of the everyday use of tissues, which is known to increase with physical activity practice (24) . This would reduce insomnia symptoms -early awakening, difficulty in initiating sleep and non-restorative sleep -that were found in between 20 and 30% of the elderly in this study, a high proportion, which deserves the attention of health professionals.…”

Theoretical Identification of Behavioral Risk Factors Among Multiple Risk Factors Causing Morning Onset of Cardiac Events due to Circadian Variations

“…Despite applications of this evidence to medical treatment, few studies examine use of behavioral risk factors related to morning onset of cardiac events. For example, final decisions based on evidence regarding the safest time to exercise during the day are still pending (Atkinson et al, 2006;Atkinson & Davenne, 2007;Murray et al,1993;Shiotani et al, 2009;White, 2003).…”