#97 - 3 Hours Before Bed - Rule Of Thumb vs Big Data
Travelling for work sounds sexy - but there’s moments when it’s not.
Take for example, when you’re the lonely person, sitting by themselves in a hotel dining room, eating breakfast.
You compare yourself to other business people, especially those dining in their small groups. One of them speaks with an American accent. How wordly they must be. I’m just a lonesome Aussie.
Well, at least that’s what happened in 2017 when I was in the Apple Isle (Tasmania) on business.
I was tasked to teach ~70-80% of Tasmania’s school counsellors how to treat school kids’ sleep problems. And to do it in 2 days. From Launceston to Hobart (the closest I get to being out of the classroom and into the wild - like Indiana Jones).
But when I sat by my lonesome, eating breakfast, with my face in my phone - I was completely focused on a new task. So much so I didn’t care about the popular business folk surrounding me.
“I’m going to be working with Polar Electro - here in Helsinki - on their big data. Do you want to join us?” wrote Prof Anu-Katriina Pesonon.
I was in!
Polar Electro
The first time I heard about Polar watches was about a decade ago. We were preparing a new sleep lab study, where we wanted to measure the heart rate of teenagers as they played a violent video game before bed.
In the combined consumer and scientific worlds, Polar were amongst the world leaders in the ambulatory measurement of physical activity and sleep.
If you’re into physical activity, especially going to the gym, check out who makes the cardio equipment. If it’s anything like my gym (BodySmith Fitness) - they use Polar cardio equipment.
Polar have been kicking around since the 1970s, so it’s safe to say that they’ve been a gamechanger.
But several years ago, the world heard about FitBit. And then Garmin.
Many tech companies started turning their attention towards delivering their customers health benefits. Including sleep.
Thankfully, Polar stuck to their ethos. The backbone of which is delivering technology that is supported by science.
In this case - sleep science.
The Rule Of Thumb Is …
When I began learning how to treat insomnia, I was told by my mentor that the rule of thumb was not to exercise in the 3 hours before bed.
The theory was that when we exercise, we increase heat production. Increased body heat = greater alertness (Gradisar & Lack, 2004; Gradisar et al., 2006) … does anyone even click these links?
I recall a classic study by Bonnet and Arand who demonstrated that even mild physical activity could make people more alert.
In their study, they got people to either sit down and watch TV - or - walk on a treadmill (ie, walking machine; Bonnet & Arand, 2000).
Afterwards, they then asked them to try and fall asleep.
As expected, it took longer to fall asleep after walking on the walking machine.
But interestingly, this occurred after only walking for 5 minutes!
So in the 2000s, I was saying to my insomnia patients not to exercise in the 3 hours before bed
The (late) 2010s
I learned during my psychology degree that “a theory is only good as the data that support it.”
Given Professors Anu and MG were about to embark on a new set of research studies with Polar, I thought it best to update my knowledge about this area.
In doing so, my brain had to do a complete backflip!
Wanna know why I backflipped? Furthermore, do you wanna learn more about whether you can exercise before bed - and if so, how much?
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Prof MG