A little exercise every day can help you sleep better

Not sleeping? Just 10 minutes of vigorous exercise every day could fix your insomnia.

And if that idea exhausts you, even walking every day could do the trick, say researchers at the University of Texas at Austin.

It’s really about being active to some degree every day, they say. Rather than saving up your exercising for the weekend, little and often may be a better approach if you’re not sleeping.

To test the idea, they got a group of university students to wear a FitBit to track their movement, exercise and sleep patterns to discover if frequency of exercise improved sleep.

They discovered that students who exercised more frequently tended to experience deeper restorative sleep, and the findings echo earlier studies that connected physical activity to non-REM sleep, a stage that includes the deep sleep essential for physical recovery and healthy brain function.

One encouraging finding was how little exercise appeared to be necessary. Among the young adults studied, as little as 10 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day seemed to result in better sleep.

That level of effort does not require an exhausting workout. According to the researchers, moderate to vigorous activity involves breathing harder than usual while still being able to carry on a conversation. On a scale of 1 to 10, the effort would feel like around a six.

Even gentler movement appeared to offer benefits. Regular walking and taking breaks from sitting to stand were also associated with healthier sleep patterns and a more positive mood the following day.

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