Thanks for joining us in Nine News Plus.
I'm Chris Miante.
Now, I think we all know at this
point that exercising and gettia
good night of sleep is good for.
But what if you get one and not the other?
That's where things could
get a little bit tricky.
And there's a new study that
says that a short sleep.
So if you get less than,
say six hours worth of sleep,
that negates the positive impacts from
working out earlier in that same day.
So joining us with a bit more about this.
Fascinating study from the University
College of London as Doc 9 News.
Medical expert Doctor Paul Cole.
Thanks so much for joining us here today,
First of all.
Second of all,
I guess Doctor Coley says that e
study tells us you really need to sleep.
And get that full night worth of sleep.
Is that that kind of main take away here?
Yeah, it's really fascinating
because a lot of us,
when we think about trying to w,
exercise into our schedule,
we think maybe we'll wake up a
little bit earlier in the morni,
maybe exercise before the work day starts
or stay up a little bit later at night,
you know, and and exercise and
then eat a little later dinner.
But really what we're
learning based on this study,
which is a large study and that
was the big strength of the stuy
9000 people followed for 10 yea.
It's a good solid body of evidee
is that it may not matter if you
exercise if you don't get enough sleep.
So if I think about it in my
head like a pyramid,
sleep really then becomes the
base or the foundation of that
pyramid in terms of healthy liv.
And we know, Chris,
that sleep has so many benefits,
whether it comes to our immune system,
whether it comes to our risk
of heart attacks and strokes,
whether it comes to our longevi,
how long we live.
Sleep is when our body repairs itself.
Sleep is when our immune system kind of.
Flexes its muscles and Revs itself up.
Sleep is when our brain resets itself,
when we consolidate our memorie,
when we think about our knowled.
So when it comes to preventing
cognitive decline,
which is what this particular
study looked at,
that sleep becomes incredibly important.
Now,
if you think about the
physiologic effects of exercise,
how does exercise help to
prevent cognitive decline?
Well,
it actually improves blood flow to the brain.
So actually think about it
like watering your plants.
You're getting more blood flow up there.
You're getting more healthy chemicals
up there because the blood vesss
have healthy changes when you exercise
and that's the way in which it helps.
But if you're thinking of
swapping one for the other,
this study tells us that's probably not OK.
I guess you kind of alluded to,
so you mentioned the base of the pyramid
and how sleeps at the base of i.
Does this study come?
Basically come away saying that sleep is
more important than exercise perhaps in
this particular window of peopld
it and it talks about kind of te
middle age window so 50 to 70 st
of seems like where you're you y
need in terms of importance sleep may
rank higher than exercise becaue
people who slept a lot but didnt
exercise had a slower cognitive
decline than people who exercisa
lot but didn't sleep as much And there
were these kind of short sleepes
what they called it which was ls
than six hours of sleep and. Ni.
So maybe in that particular win,
especially as we get older,
we start to get at risk for cognitive
decline because our brain is getting older,
our blood vessels are getting o.
So that kind of middle-aged window is
when we're at biggest risk for cognitive
decline really making sure we he
that enough time to repair the damage
in our brain cells to make suret
we're sleeping at least 7 to 9 s
a night becomes even more import
is there so you mentioned 6
to kind of eight hours that
being kind of meantime window.
How much does that matter?
Or vary between say 6:00 and
7:00 and 8:00 and 9:00 hours?
So the American Heart
Association says 7 to 9.
In this particular study they
looked at sort of optimal sleep
duration as 6 to 8 and extended
sleep duration is greater than 8
and short sleep as less than si.
So they said kind of 6 to
8 was the best window.
The AHA says it's kind of 7:00 to 9:00.
But I'll make one more point, C.
It's not just the quantity of s,
it's also the quality of sleep.
And that was a drawback of this particular
study because it didn't actually look
at how well people were sleepin,
what percentage of their sleep was REM sleep,
what percentage was non REM sle,
what phase of the sleep cycles they were in?
Because we know that sleep can sleep.
Architecture and the landscape of sleep
is really complicated and compl.
And even within the same person,
it's not the same from one night to the next.
So what your behaviors are doin,
whether or not you're drinking
alcohol close to bedtime,
like on the weekends,
whether or not you're looking aa
TV screen or a device screen rit
before bedtime like we all do,
whether or not you're doing thoe
kinds of activities can also
alter your sleep architecture,
even from one night to the next.
And that were variables, of cou,
that were not controlled.
But that can obviously impact
the quality of sleep,
which can then translate into whether
or not sleep is giving us the se
physiologic benefits every single night.
So, OK, when it comes to exercise, maybe.
What are some tips about
building that in to somebody's?
I think somebody at home
watching right now saying, well,
it'd be nice to have the time
to be able to exercise and to
sleep 6 to 8 hours a night.
I think it comes down to
that the end of the day.
Any tips about maybe building t?
Better into our schedules,
you know, we're talking about 30
minutes a day and it's five days a week,
so it's 150 minutes a week.
So you could even miss a
day or two here or there.
But I would say really working t
into whether it's your work day,
because a lot of us of course
like to go to the gym and like
to do those types of things.
But that requires a bigger time
commitment because you have to k
out time to travel and try to be there
and then time to come back and recover.
And so if you're somebody whose schedule
does not logistically allow for that,
do not chip away at the sleep.
Instead, figure out how you cank
that exercise into your daily d,
whether it means sort of taking the stairs,
whether it means 10 minute
walks three times a day.
Now you could probably get away
from your desk for 10 minutes,
you know, once in the morning,
maybe after your breakfast,
once around lunchtime,
and then once in the evening rit
after dinner or what have you.
So you really can find smart
ways to incorporate.
Doesn't have to be 30 minutes at a time,
You can break it into 215 minute
blocks or 310 minute blocks,
or what have you,
but getting your heart rate up.
And doing it often and getting
your heart rate down,
So these intervals where you gop
and then you go down are really
thought to be the healthiest way
to condition your cardiovascular
system to learn how to react
and learn how not to overreact
and then learn how to recover.
So it's 30 minutes a day,
and that includes. Again, it's s
simple as walking, correct? Yep.
And but brisk walking.
So if you're strolling with the,
that's not going to count.
Yeah, because the dog stopping
and sniffing and what have you.
But if you're power walking,
if you're jogging, if you're bi,
if you're, if you're running,
if you're dancing,
any of those types of activities
would certainly count.
It can even be something as simple as
getting up and doing some jumping jacks,
doing some pushups.
I'm not crazy about those
standing desks because I think
they can create ergonomic issue,
but if there is a way that you d
sneak away for 5 minutes and doa
brisk walk or a little run on the treadmill,
that would be your little inter.
You could absolutely do that.
Now sometimes,
of course it is hard in our day
to to work a lot of this in so o
small tips and tricks that I don
on the weekends as I I park at e
farthest away parking spot that I can find,
not the closest.
Because we often have a tendency
to want to park right next to te
entrance of the store or whatev,
but you park far away so that
you get in those extra steps.
Don't take the elevator,
You know as much as you can res.
Avoid taking the elevator,
and then even if it means just
walking around your office,
it's a nice way to socialize wih
your colleagues and friends.
But try to get as many steps
and during the day as well,
especially if you have a sedentary job.
Any final thoughts from the stuy
and what we should do to improve
that sleep? And exercise balanc,
you know, I'll say that when it
comes to sleep, we don't have
a ton of great scientific data
because a lot of the studies hae
been small and sort of anecdota.
So I'm excited that this is onef
the larger sort of longitudinal
studies that we have over time.
I'm looking for more research en
earlier in life because what wee
seeing here is that 50 to 70 sof
this the critical window after .
Interestingly,
you don't have the same sort of
impact in terms of missing slee.
So it's almost like your brain
has finished its aging or what
have you potentially.
But, but you want to make sure
that even early in your life.
So if you're in your 20s and 30,
I don't want you thinking you're invincible.
I don't want you thinking you
can cut away on the sleep.
I have a friend who tells me
I'll sleep on the weekends,
so he doesn't sleep at all during the week,
three or four nights in a row,
and then he'll binge sleep on the weekends.
And that's not really how our brain works.
You can't just not sleep and then binge
on the weekends on sleep and thk
that you're balancing everything out.
You really want to make sure to give your
body some TLC because you only get it once.
And when it comes to our brain d
keeping our brain young and act,
knowing that we don't have
a lot of treatments,
when our cognitive function
starts to go down,
we want to do the best
we can with prevention.
OK,
Well, thanks, Dr. Cole.
I appreciate your insight
on this fascinating study.
And thanks again for letting
us your expertise here today.