Day full of activity leads to better sleep at night: Study

The findings of the study also reveal that children who fall asleep quicker have a propensity to stay asleep for longer periods of time.

Sitting and sleep latency link
The research conducted by experts from Monash University in Melbourne and the University of Auckland found that for every hour the children sit, they need three more minutes to nod off.

Interestingly, what the children did during that one hour of sitting did not make any difference to the duration required, termed as sleep latency.

Hence, whether the children were glued to the television sets, calmly reading or coloring their picture books, the time required to fall asleep increased with every three minutes.

Active children sleep better
For the purpose of the study, researchers examined 519 healthy 7-year-olds from New Zealand. These children were part of a larger study and were already being tracked for their development since birth.

This particular study specifically aimed to look at the link between a child’s physical activity during the day and the sleep patterns. Each of the 519 participants in the study wore a device called actigraph for 24 hours.

An actigraph essentially records movement and thus, makes available, an objective measure of activity level and sleep time.

The researchers found a yawing difference in the duration required for children to sleep. While some dozed off in as little as 13 minutes after going to bed, some took almost three quarters of an hour to have those forty winks. The average sleep latency was 26 minutes.

Children who were very physically active during the day took less time to fall asleep. In fact the children who fell asleep faster also tended to sleep longer.

"This study emphasises the importance of physical activity for children, not only for fitness, cardiovascular health and weight control, but also for sleep," the researchers wrote.

Words of wisdom, words of caution
Mandy Gurney, founder of children's sleep clinic Millpond said that the research provided useful evidence of the benefits of doing exercises.

"But activity is not the be all and end all, and shouldn't be encouraged right before bedtime. What's essential is a routine wind-down hour, a quiet time before bed. A warm bath, but no longer than 10 minutes, and then straight into a darkened bedroom,” advised Gurney.

The study, titled ‘Falling asleep: the determinants of sleep latency.’ appears in the medical journal Archives of Disease in Childhood published by the BMJ Group.