Exercise and sleep are vital to human health and help maintain the normal functioning of the body. Lack of exercise or poor sleep are strongly associated with mortality, but their synergistic effects on health are less clear.

Recently, a study published in the "British Journal of Sports Medicine" found that physical activity (PA) can offset the serious health risks caused by lack of sleep.

The study included more than 380,000 adults (55% female) with an average age of 55.9 years old, and was followed up for 11.1 years. , compared with people who sleep well and have high PA levels, people with poor sleep and low PA levels have a 57% higher risk of all-cause mortality, a 67% higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) death, and a higher risk of cancer death. 45%, and a 91% higher risk of death from lung cancer.

Emmanuel Stamatakis, a researcher from the School of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney, said, "Our study found that PA synergistically amplifies the risk of premature death from poor sleep, and conversely, meeting PA recommendations can offset most of the risk of poor sleep. Risk."

According to Stamatakis, participants' normal weekly PA levels were measured in metabolic equivalents (MET-min), which is roughly equivalent to the energy expended per minute of physical activity.

At the same time, according to the participants' sleep scores, 3% had poor sleep, 42% had moderate sleep, and 56% had healthy sleep.

The authors reported: "Younger, female, slim, faced less socioeconomic deprivation, had higher vegetable and fruit intake, sat less, had no mental health problems, never smoked, worked non-shift work, drank alcohol Participants with fewer and higher PA tended to have healthier sleep."

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After adjusting for confounders and PA levels, poorer and moderate sleep were associated with a higher risk of death compared with healthy sleep. Poor sleep was associated with ischemic stroke (HR 1.94); moderate sleep was associated with coronary heart disease (HR 1.16).

Compared with participants with high PA levels, participants with low PA levels had progressively higher all-cause mortality after adjusting for confounders.

Participants who had the worst sleep quality and exercised the least were at greatest risk for adverse outcomes compared with participants who had high levels of PA and slept well.

Stamatakis said: "The so-called 'synergy' ;, meaning that inactivity amplifies the health risks of poor sleep because the risk of death from inactivity and poor sleep is greater than the sum of their independent risks."

References: 1.Yasgur BS. Physical Activity Offsets Serious Health Risks of Poor Sleep[N]. WebMD, 2021-8-6.2.Huang B, Duncan MJ, Cistulli PA, et al. Sleep and physical activity in relation to all-cause, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality risk[J]. British Journal of Sports Medicine Published Online First: 29 June 2021. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2021-104046