Pleading for less sedentary lifestyle, researchers reveal the optimal rhythm of a 24-hour day to preserve health, between time spent sitting, standing, practicing physical activity and sleeping.
- Researchers have highlighted how to best divide the hours of the day, between sedentary lifestyle, sleep and physical activity, to optimize physical and mental health.
- On the program: 6 hours in a sitting position, 5 hours and 10 minutes in a standing position, 8 hours and 20 minutes of sleep, 2 hours and 10 minutes of light intensity physical activity (household chores, cooking, etc.) and same duration of moderate to intense physical activity (walking, gym, endurance sport, etc.).
- “Spending less time sitting and more time standing, practicing physical activity and sleeping provide big boosts to our cardiometabolic health,” conclude the authors, who generally advocate less sedentary lifestyle.
Between a sedentary lifestyle, sleep and sport, how can we properly divide the hours of the day to optimize our physical and mental health? A team of scientists looked into the question and found that there is indeed an almost accounting balance to prevent our way of life from being detrimental to its life expectancy.
An ideal daily balance for better health
As part of their work, published in the journal Diabetologyresearchers from Swinburne University of Technology and the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, in Australia, analyzed the behaviors of more than 2,000 people during a 24-hour day, and compared them with their different health markers, such as “body mass index or fasting glucose level”, can we read in a communicated.
As a result, they discovered a “ideal daily balance”, that is to say associated with a better state of health in the volunteers: 6 hours in a sitting position, 5 hours and 10 minutes in a standing position, 8 hours and 20 minutes of sleep, 2 hours and 10 minutes of activity light intensity physical activity (household chores, cooking, etc.) and the same duration of moderate to intense physical activity (walking, gym, endurance sport, etc.). Measures which constitute, according to the study, a “Goldilocks area”named after the principle of astrobiology which designates the best “habitable” places in the universe to look for life.
Replace time spent sitting with physical activity or sleep
In detail, the researchers first plead for less sedentary lifestyle. And for good reason, “replacing time spent sitting with more time in physical activity, especially of light intensity, was associated with more beneficial blood sugar readings in people with type 2 diabetes than in those without not”.
The study suggests that it’s all about proportion and balance: for example, “sleep can be beneficial to health if it replaces sedentary behavior, but detrimental if it replaces exercise time.” “This is why we need guidelines that take into account the entire spectrum of human behavior”affirm the scientists, aware that it is not “it’s not possible to do ten hours of physical activity and zero sedentary behavior.”
Without necessarily counting the hours of the day, it is urgent to remember that “spending less time sitting and more time standing, engaging in physical activity and sleeping provide big boosts to our cardiometabolic health”conclude the authors.