At the desk all day, sleep poorly at night

Sitting around all day doesn’t do us much good—and it could also be affecting our sleep.

Around 80 percent of us sit at a desk to do our work, and it makes it harder to get to sleep at night, say researchers from the University of South Florida.

Deskwork increases the risk of insomnia by around 37 percent and raises the need for the weekend catchup sleep by up to 66 percent, the researchers found.

They analysed lifestyle data from around 1,000 office workers, and categorised them either as good, catchup or insomnia-like sleepers.  Most fell into the insomnia-like category, which included having problems falling asleep, having interrupted sleep and suffering from frequent daytime tiredness.

It’s important to start moving during the day and not to continue working into the evening and night, but these changes may not have an immediate effect, the researchers say.  Most of the insomnia-like sleepers were still suffering some of the issues up to 10 years after they had retired from their deskbound work.

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