MEDICAL MISCELLANY

Is IT worth sacrificing an hour’s sleep to fit exercise into your day? IT MAY seem virtuous to get up early for a workout — but if it means missing out on sleep, it’s a bad idea.

The health benefits of exercise won’t make up for the downsides of sacrificing sleep, explains Kevin Morgan, a professor of psychology and director of the Clinical Sleep Research Unit at Loughborough University.

For example, exercise can make you sharper and improve your reaction times, but ‘that potential will be eclipsed by being dog-tired’, he says. ‘Secondly, people may exercise because they want to lose weight. But being even slightly sleep-deprived will stimulate your appetite and reduce the hormones that tell you to stop eating, so you may, in fact, put on weight.’ There is also evidence to suggest that people who sleep for less than the average length of time — around seven hours — die earlier, although the reason is unclear. Instead of sacrificing sleep, it would be better to re-organise your lifestyle to fit in more exercise, for example by leaving work an hour early when you can, suggests Professor Morgan.