Adequate sleep helps people stick to exercise and diet plan: Study

Studies show that improving sleep health is something everyone can do to improve their heart health.

People who reported regular, uninterrupted sleep were more likely to stick to their diet and exercise plans while trying to lose weight, according to preliminary research presented at the 2023 Scientific Sessions on Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle, and Cardiometabolic Health Better live performance. Presents the most recent findings in population-based health and wellness, as well as their implications for healthy lifestyles and cardiometabolic function.

"Focusing on getting good sleep -- getting a regular seven to nine hours a night while staying refreshed and alert throughout the day -- can be an important behavior that helps people meet their sleep goals." " Physical activity and dietary modification. said Christopher E.Kline, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Health and Human Development at the University of Pittsburgh.

"An earlier study of ours reported that better sleep health was associated with significantly greater loss of body weight and fat among participants in a one-year behavioral weight loss program." Researchers examined whether good sleep health was related to adherence to various lifestyle modifications prescribed in a 12-month weight loss program.

The weight loss program included 125 adults (median age 50, 91% female, 81% white) who met criteria for overweight or obesity (body mass index 27–44), without any medical conditions. required medical supervision. or physical activity.

Sleep habits were measured at the start of the program, at 6 months and 12 months, via patient questionnaires, a sleep diary, and 7-day readings from a wrist-based device that recorded sleep, wakefulness, and sleep. Was. And comfort . These measures were used to rate each participant as "good" or "poor" on six measures of sleep: regularity; Satisfaction; Supervision; Moment; efficiency (percentage of time spent in bed before falling asleep); and duration.

An overall sleep health score ranging from 0 to 6 was calculated for each participant, with one point for each 'good' measure of sleep health, with higher scores indicating better levels of sleep health. Adherence to the weight loss program was measured by percentage of group intervention sessions; the percentage of days on which each participant ate between 85 and 115 percent of the recommended daily calories; and change in daily duration of moderate or vigorous physical activity. At the start of the study, the participants' average sleep health score at 6 months and 12 months was 4.5 out of 6.

Participants self-reported their calorie intake each day using a phone app, and researchers measured participants' physical activity with a waist-worn accelerometer for one week at the start of the study, at 6 months and at 12 months.

After adjusting for sleep health scores for age, gender, race, and whether or not the couple shared a bed, researchers found that better sleep health was associated with higher rates of improvement in group interval session attendance, adherence to caloric intake goals, and time. Was. Dedicated to moderate-vigorous physical activity.

They found: 79 percent of participants attended group sessions in the first six months and 62 percent attended group sessions in the second six months. Participants met their daily calorie intake goals on 36 percent of days in the first six months and 21 percent in the second six months. Participants increased the total daily time spent in moderate-vigorous activity by 8.7 minutes in the first six months, although total time decreased by 3.7 minutes in the second six months.

Decreases in group session attendance, caloric intake and time spent in moderate-to-vigorous activity were expected in the second six months, Kline said. "As one continues with a long-term behavioral weight loss intervention, it is common for the weight loss behavior to decrease," he said.

In addition, although there was an association between improved sleep health scores and increased physical activity, it was not strong enough to be statistically significant, meaning the researchers could not rule out that the results were due to chance.

"We hypothesized that sleep would be associated with lifestyle modification, however, we did not expect to see associations between all three measures of sleep health and lifestyle modification," he said. "Although we did not intervene in sleep health in this study, these results suggest that optimizing sleep may lead to better adherence to lifestyle improvements."

Limitations of the study include that it did not include any interventions to help participants improve their sleep, that the study sample was not recruited based on participants' sleep health characteristics, and that The overall sample population had relatively good sleep health at baseline.

"A question of interest for future research is whether we can increase adherence to lifestyle modifications (and ultimately increase weight loss) if We improve a person's sleep health." A second question for the researchers is how long such interventions will be timed to improve sleep.

"It is not yet clear whether it would be better to optimize sleep instead of attempting to lose weight. In other words, should doctors focus on getting their patients to get better and more regular sleep before they start trying to lose weight?" Should they focus on losing weight, or should they try to improve their sleep as well as modify their diet and activity levels?" Kline said.

Improving sleep health is something everyone can do to improve their heart health and it's a key component of the American Heart Association's Life Essentials. Sleep was added as an eighth component of optimal heart health in 2022, which includes eating healthy foods, being physically active, not smoking, getting enough sleep, maintaining a healthy weight, and managing cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure levels. Management is included.

According to the American Heart Association's 2023 Statistical Update, cardiovascular disease claims more lives in the US each year than all forms of cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease combined. "There are over 100 studies linking sleep to weight gain and obesity, but this was a great example to show how sleep is not only related to weight, but also to the things we do to help control our weight." This may be because sleep affects the things that trigger hunger and cravings, your metabolism and your ability to regulate metabolism and your ability to make healthy decisions in general," Michael said A. Grandner, PhD, MTR.