Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Tired from a restless night spent awake? One of the most helpful things to do might be to get some exercise, according to a new study.
“Physically active people have a lower risk of insomnia symptoms and extreme sleep duration, both long and short,” said lead study author Dr. Erla Björnsdóttir, sleep expert and part-time teacher and researcher at Reykjavik University.
The study published Tuesday in the journal BMJ Open looked at data from more than 4,300 people ages 39 to 67 over a 10-year period.
Björnsdóttir is affiliated with a sleep application that tracks sleep and gives tips and resources for better sleep. The company didn’t fund this study, and the authors didn’t report any competing interests.
Participants in nine European countries were surveyed about their frequency, intensity and duration of physical activity as well as their symptoms of insomnia, amount of sleep each night and feelings of sleepiness during the day.
Those who were persistently active were 55% more likely to be normal sleepers – those who sleep 6 to 9 hours a night – and those who became active over the time period were 21% more likely to sleep normally – after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index (BMI) and smoking history, the study said.
The results are strong on their own but are also supported by an existing body of literature, said Dr. David Neubauer, associate professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was not involved in the research.
“Our results are in line with previous studies that have shown a beneficial effect of physical activity on symptoms of insomnia, but the current study additionally shows the importance of consistency in exercise over time,” Björnsdóttir said in an email. “It therefore matters to be physically active throughout your life in order to reduce the risk of insomnia and short sleep duration.”
The study may give health-care professionals another tool alongside medication and therapy, said Dr. Shalini Paruthi, co-director of the Sleep Medicine and Research Center at St. Luke’s Hospital in Chesterfield, Missouri, and an American Academy of Sleep Medicine spokesperson. She was not involved in the research.
“It gives us an idea of something that maybe we don’t always think about for treatment of insomnia,” Paruthi said.
There are plenty of reasons why physical activity may help in getting a good night’s rest.
“Exercise has been shown to improve sleep quality and duration by promoting relaxation, reducing stress, and enhancing mood. Physical activity helps regulate the body’s internal clock and promotes deeper, more restorative sleep,” Björnsdóttir said.
This study does not show on its own that adding in exercise will reduce insomnia symptoms, since it did not get a clear baseline of sleep quality before activity was added in, Neubauer said.
However, there is still good evidence out there.
“There is some literature suggesting … people who start becoming more physically active and exercising more do have a tendency to have improved nighttime sleep in terms of their total sleep time, and their ability to fall asleep,” he said.
It’s important to note, however, that people who have long had problems with insomnia likely won’t find that exercise completely cures their condition on its own, Paruthi added.
And it will vary individually — some people will see amazing results, others moderate and a group of people may not see any improvement, she said.
Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia is the most effective tool out there for treating insomnia, so people with more severe sleep problems may want to seek that out as well, Paruthi added.
You don’t have to start running marathons to get the benefit. You just have to start, the experts said.
“Even moderate-intensity exercise, such as walking or yoga, can have significant positive effects on sleep,” Björnsdóttir said.
Paruthi has seen from her patients that there are always roadblocks to getting more active, but that any amount helps.
“Even if you can only walk two houses to the left, come back and walk two houses to the right – that’s a great start,” she said. “Even if you’re doing five minutes a day, you just have to start somewhere.”
If you want to make your activity even more helpful to your circadian rhythm, you can get outside in the sunlight, Neubauer said.
“Both being outdoors and being physically active can have a positive effect on our circadian rhythm. And it is our circadian rhythm that promote sleep at nighttime and alertness during the daytime,” he said.
“The degree to which people can modify their lifestyles to enhance activity and being outdoors and getting more light certainly has the potential to have a positive effect on nighttime sleep.”
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.