Want a better night's sleep? Take regular exercise breaks

If you're a TV watcher in the evenings, there's a good chance you'll get more sleep at night if you do some light exercise, according to a new study.

In an Otago University study participants did three minute bursts of activity every half-hour throughout an evening, and their sleep was then monitored.

Thirty adult participants were invited come to the lab at the University of Otago, lead author Jennifer Gale told RNZ's Afternoons.

"In one session we got them to sit for four hours and watch television. And in another session, they did the same thing, but every half an hour, they got up and did three minutes of resistance exercises."

After the session, participants went home and the researchers monitored their sleep remotely via a wrist-worn activity monitor, she said.

"And that's how we were able to see that compared to when they sat, when they did the activity breaks, they slept for 27 minutes longer."

All the participants went to bed at the same time, she said, and it was on a normal working weekday.

The participants did simple resistance exercises, she said.

"It was a rotation of calf raises, squats and standing knee raises with a hip extension, like marching on the spot.

"We chose those exercises because you don't require any equipment or a lot of space. And you could just stand up from your chair and do them without even interrupting the TV that you are watching."

The more often you get out of your chair and move your body the better it's going to be for you, she said.

"And there's been quite a bit of research done similar to ours, but throughout the day, and every 30 minutes for about three minutes of exercise seems to be the sweet spot."

"But depending on the priorities of your life and the other things that you've got going on, any interruption to that sitting time is going

There was no difference in sleep quality, she said.

"They slept just as well, and they slept longer."