Sleep is very closely related to the amount of physical activity you get each day. It is said in the ParticipACTION report card of 2016 that only nine percent of Canadian kids, that age from five to seventeen years of age, get 60 minutes of physical activity each day. 33 percent of five to thirteen year olds, and 45 percent of fourteen to seventeen year olds have troubles falling asleep and staying asleep. It is thought that the lack of physical activity for children and adolescents is the reason 31 percent of school-aged children and 26 percent of adolescents are sleep-deprived.
Since children aren’t physically active during the day, they don’t become as tired as they would be with physical activity, and therefore have a worse sleep. They may be meeting the minimum sleep duration requirements, but do not necessarily get a good sleep. Those who use more energy during the day will sleep better and in the end will feel more refreshed and have more energy for the next day. Watching television or being on screens too close to bedtime increases brain activity, which makes it difficult to fall asleep.
A test was done on 591 seven years olds called an actigraph. An activity monitor was worn for 24 hours to track their activity during the day as well
as their sleep patterns. It was found that on average, it took these children 26 minutes to fall asleep at night. The more physically active the children were during the day, the quicker they fell asleep at night, proving the statement made earlier that using more energy during the day creates a more tired brain and thus you start the sleep cycle sooner. The children who were involved in more sedentary activities during the day took longer to fall asleep, in fact, as each hour passes during sedentary activity, 3 minutes is added onto sleep latency.
Poor sleep is also linked to multiple health problems that have been found in adolescents. It was found that teens who go less than six and a half hours of sleep at night are two and a half times more likely to have elevated blood pressure than those who sleep for longer. As well as teens who have issues falling asleep are three and a half times more likely to have high blood pressure than teens who have a good night sleep.
Although physical activity is not the only cause of sleep deprivation, it does help feed the effects that lack of sleep can have on children.Kids can be effected by hyperactivity, impulsiveness and a short attention span, struggles in school and . have an increased risk of obesity, diabetes and hypertension. Children can also struggle with chronic sleep loss which is said to be linked to higher rates of depression and suicidal thoughts. Exercise acts as treatment for moderate to mild depression, and it also helps prevent a relapse. Endorphins are released during exercise that will give you a sense of well-being that allows you escape from the negativity that you are facing.
Physical activity during the day isn’t only important because it helps improve sleep. It also helps to relieve stress. When a person is stressed, they may have tense muscles, pain throughout their body, headaches, tightness in the chest and other issues involving the digestive tract. Physical activity can help to relax the muscles in the body as well as relieves the tension. This in turn will help to improve sleep which will in turn, help to reduce stress, levels of tension, and elevates and stabilizes mood and self-esteem. Physical activity also helps improve academic performance. At school, students are mostly sitting in the same spot for around an hour, being sedentary, and then move around for around five minutes in between classes. Exercise is proved to increase oxygen flow to the brain, increased brain neurotransmitters, increased brain-derived neurotrophins which have a direct effect on learning, memory and higher thinking.
Physical activity can also play a key role for children and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. John Ratey, M.D., says that physical activity plays a complementary role along with taking medication, which will help increase attention and improve mood. He says exercise “turns on the attention system,” which is executive functions, such as sequencing, working memory, prioritizing, inhibiting, and sustaining attention. This system helps kids be less impulsive.
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Reasons to Be Physically Active