Research Paper on Effect of Sleep Habits on Physical Activity

Introduction

Sleep is known to have a multitude of benefits on an individual, including enhanced memory and a stronger immune system. Additionally, various studies have incorporated the effect of different variables on sleep, such as the effect that physical activity has on the sleeping pattern and sleep quality of individuals. Evidently, most literature has focused on the impact of physical exercise on sleep, with very few focusing on the inverse of the relationship to establish how sleeping habits affect physical activity. Available studies have focused on various parameters of sleep and how they influence various factors that determine the intensity and frequency of physical activity, without providing conclusive results on the correlation between these two variables. Some of the parameters under study include energy expenditure, glucose metabolism and energy intake and resulting health effects that tend to reduce the participation of individuals in physical activity, such as obesity. However, the conclusions provided by these studies can be used to establish a positive correlation between sleeping habits and physical activity.

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Literature Review

Looking at a systematic review of various studies by Dolezal, Neufeld, Boland, Martin & Cooper (2017), there exists a positive correlation between sleeping habits and physical activity. Most studies under review explain that sleep adequacy is closely linked to the increased breakdown of glucose, thereby ensuring that the body has enough energy supply thus enhancing physical activity. This study focused on the biological dynamics of the relationship between aspects of sleep such as duration and quality and factors influencing physical activity to conclude that there exists a positive correlation between the two variables. Other biological aspects that resulted from poor sleeping habits included poor brain activity resulting in fatigue and reduced heart rate that make it difficult for individuals to engage in physical activity. The study also included sleeping disorders that resulted from poor sleeping habits and resulted in reduced physical activity, which included an increase in weight, hypertension, heart disease, stroke and depression (Dolezal et al., 2017). In addition, the following hours were recommended by the National Sleep Foundation for different age groups to maximize their physical activity while awake:

Another study by Markwald, Melanson, Smith, Higgins, Perreault, Eckel & Wright (2013) suggested that lack of sufficient sleep resulted in reduced physical activity by reducing energy balance and expenditure. An experiment by Markwald et al. (2013) involving 16 adults for two weeks led to the conclusion that reduced sleep hours promoted high consumption of fats and carbohydrates to provide energy for use when an individual is awake, and this resulted in weight gain as a result of reduced physical activity. Furthermore, the study explained that this impact was high among women who were likely to gain more weight and be less active physically.

A final experiment conducted by Machal, Zlamal, Svancara, Pikhart and Vasku (2018) provided inconclusive results between sleep parameters and physical activity. According to the research, there existed a very mild correlation between sleep duration and physical activity among adolescents, and this correlation resulted from different covariates including body mass index and sex of the children. Based on the findings, the study concluded that there lacked enough evidence to provide a conclusive relationship between sleep and exercise.

Based on the summary of the above studies, it is accurate to establish that there is a positive correlation between sleeping habits and physical activity, despite the fact that this relationship could be mild. The study should, however, be conducted by focusing on individual aspects of the variables to come up with a subjective conclusion.

Hypothesis

Based on the results provided by prior studies, the hypothesis for this research is there exists a positive correlation between sleeping habits and physical activity.

Methods

The researcher chose 26 (14 women and 12 men) healthy participants aged between 20 and 40 years to take part in the experimental study. These participants were then divided into two equal groups, with one half being the control group and the other half being the experimental group. The experimental group was required to sleep for 5 hours and the intensity of their physical activity monitored and recorded using the physical work capacity protocol. On the other hand, the control group was required to sleep for 9 hours and their level of physical activity recorded. Only participants who could naturally fall asleep without the use of sedatives or other medication were included in the study sample.

The variables under study were sleeping habit and physical activity. The independent variable was the sleep habit measured in terms of duration (hours) of sleep of the participants, while the dependent variable was the physical activity measured in terms of energy expenditure using a calorimeter. The data collected was recorded in two tables for both groups, showing the level of physical activity at different times during the day.

Results

Graph 1

From the graph above, there is a huge variation in energy expenditure between the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group has a lower mean of calories used at each time duration, and this is interpreted to mean that there is low physical activity in the group. In contrast, the control group has a higher mean of calories at every duration of time showing that there is high physical activity among this group. The data thus provide evidence that there is a positive correlation between sleeping habits and physical activity.

Discussion

The experimental group was made to sleep for 5 hours and thus lost about 4 hours of sleep, which was equivalent to losing around 44 per cent amount of sleep. This sleep loss resulted in poor energy metabolism and conservation since more energy was utilized to cater for the extra hours of staying awake. Furthermore, there was increased consumption of carbohydrates and fats among this group, and due to poor metabolism, they had low energy. This resulted in low energy expenditure due to their inability to be physically active. The high level of physical inactivity can thus be used to explain the low level of energy loss among this group, and resulting adverse health effects such as obesity, as explained by Dolezal et al. (2017). The control group was physically active due to the constant supply of energy and quick metabolism, hence the high calories recorded in energy expenditure. The experiment thus provided proof of the existence and type of correlation between the variables sleep habit and physical activity.

Conclusion

From the findings, the research was able to support the hypothesis, since it showed that there was a positive correlation between the two variables under study. Despite the sample size being small, there was a clear difference between the experimental and control groups, hence proving the accuracy of the experiment. However, the limitation of the experiment was in its failure to determine the strength of this correlation. Another limitation was the fact that only one factor under each variable could be used for the study, hence the inability for the research to provide the precise impact of each property that constitutes the sleeping habits of individuals on physical activity. Future studies may choose to diversify and focus on the impact of sleeping habits on physical activity for different genders and provide a complete breakdown of the different components of each variable.

References

Dolezal, B. A., Neufeld, E. V., Boland, D. M., Martin, J. L. and Cooper, C. B. (2017). Interrelationship between Sleep and Exercise: A systematic review. Advances in Preventive Medicine, 2017.

Machal, J., Zlamal, F., Kukla, L., Svancara, J. Pikhart, H., and Vasku, J. B. (2018). Sleeping Habits of Adolescents in Relation to their Physical Activity and Exercise: Results from the ELSPAC study. BMJ Journals, 72(12)

Markwald, R. R., Melanson, E. L., Smith, M. R., Higgins, J., Perreault, L., Eckel, R. H. and Wright, K. P. (2013). Impact of Insufficient Sleep on Total Daily Energy Expenditure, Food Intake and Weight Gain. PNAS, 110(14) 5695-5700.