Just 10 minutes of exercise a day could make a difference in the
duration and quality of sleep, the survey by the non-profit
National Sleep Foundation showed. "We found that exercise and
great sleep go together, hand in hand," Max Hirshkowitz, a sleep
researcher and the chair of the poll task force, said in an
interview. "We also found a step-wise increase in how vigorous
the quality is, in terms of how much you exercise. So if you say
you exercise a lot, we found better sleep quality. For people
who don't exercise at all we found more sleep problems." Earlier
research studies have shown the impact of exercise on sleep, but
Hirshkowitz, who is a professor at Baylor College of Medicine in
Houston, said the survey is the first to detail the benefits of
exercise in a nationally representative poll of this size.
People who described themselves as exercisers reported better
sleep than their more sedentary counterparts, although the
amount of sleep, an average of just under seven hours on week
nights, was the same.