Getting sufficient sleep is important for good health. However, authoritative statistics on insomnia worldwide suggest that 16.2% of the global population suffers from insomnia, and 7.9% have severe insomnia. A survey study in the US conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that adults had trouble falling or staying asleep within a 30-day period.
A recent scientific meta-study examined the outcomes of 22 randomized controlled trials investigating the effects of exercise and other therapies for insomnia, and found that four types of exercise may be the best ways to improve sleep quality and avoid insomnia: yoga, Tai Chi, walking, and jogging.
The study found that practicing yoga, Tai Chi, walking, and jogging are effective therapies for treating poor sleep and insomnia. The positive effects of yoga were the strongest of the exercises studied, and the beneficial effects of Tai Chi were the longest-lasting. The conclusions of the study were:
- Practicing yoga may increase sleep time by just under two hours a night and boost sleep
efficiency by 15%. It may also shorten the amount of time it takes to fall asleep and wake
up after having been asleep. - Tai Chi may improve sleep quality, increase total sleep time by nearly an hour, reduce
wake after sleep onset, and shorten sleep onset latency. The beneficial effects of Tai Chi
were especially long-lasting: as long as two years. - Walking or jogging may result in an almost 10-point reduction in insomnia severity
scores. - For people seeking better sleep, yoga, tai chi, walking, and jogging may be as effective
as cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia. - Seven to nine hours is the recommended amount of sleep each night for adults.
The original study is published in the journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.
