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Strong Women
Why taking a nap is better for your heart health than simply sitting on the sofa
By Lauren Geall
2 years ago
3 min read
We’ve got some good news for fans of an afternoon snooze: a new study has found that any activity – including sleeping – is better for your heart health than sitting down.
Living a healthy lifestyle is rarely about making big, life-altering changes. As much as we’d all love a magic pill that would improve our gut health, increase our cardiovascular fitness and support our immune system, it’s the small decisions we make daily that will make a difference in the long run.
When it comes to looking after your heart health, one of the best small changes you can make is reducing the amount of time you spend sitting down. We all know how dangerous a sedentary lifestyle can be for our health, primarily because of the impact it can have on our heart; inactivity can lead to fatty deposits building up in our arteries, increasing our risk of a heart attack or stroke.
The good news, however, is that you don’t need to be running marathons to reap the benefits of activity for your heart health. According to a new study, even taking a nap could make a difference.
The study, supported by the British Heart Foundation and published in the European Heart Journal, is the first to assess how different patterns of movement throughout the day can affect heart health.
The analysis of six studies – which were based on the data of over 15,000 people – measured the impact of moderate-vigorous and light activity, as well as standing and sleeping, compared to sedentary periods, on a range of metrics including BMI, waist circumference, and HDL cholesterol levels. These metrics were then used to assess the overall impact of the activities on heart health.
Once they’d got all this data in line, the team set about modelling what would happen to someone’s heart health if they were to change various periods of their behaviour for a different type of activity for a week. Not only did they find that as little as five minutes of moderate-vigorous activity had a noticeable effect on heart health, but also that near-sedentary activities like sleeping and standing are better for you than simply sitting.
While this doesn’t mean sleeping all day long is going to benefit your heart health, it does mean that napping is likely better for your heart than simply lounging on the sofa (which is good news for those of us who love a midday snooze).
However, if you want to truly look after your heart, you’ll need to incorporate more movement into your routine. You don’t need to spend hours pacing up and down the street, but taking breaks from sitting at your desk throughout the day – whether that’s by putting the washing out, going for a walk or doing some cleaning – can make a big difference to what’s going on inside.
How much activity should we be doing every week?
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The NHS has clear physical activity guidelines for people aged 19-64 that are designed to help us avoid the negative impact of sitting down too much while also reaping the benefits of exercise.
They state that adults should aim to:
- do strengthening activities that work all the major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms) at least twice a week
- do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity a week
- spread exercise evenly over four to five days a week, or every day
- reduce time spent sitting or lying down and break up long periods of not moving with some activity
The guidelines also state that you can achieve the weekly target with several short sessions of ‘very vigorous’ intensity activity (such as HIIT and interval running) or a mix of moderate, vigorous and very vigorous intensity activity.
To find out more about what counts as moderate and vigorous activity, you can visit the NHS website.
Images: Getty
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