Which is worse, lack of sleep or lack of exercise? \ stacker news ~HealthAndFitness

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Which is worse, lack of sleep or lack of exercise?

509 sats \ 26 comments \ @cryotosensei 14h HealthAndFitness

zaps forwarded to @User21000000 (50%)

This is a follow-up to my running post: #846129.

@User21000000 asked me why I haven’t considered waking up at 5.30am for a solid run.

My honest answer is that I like sleep more than running. But upon probing my thinking further, I realised that there is more to it than my lackluster will toward running.

I am more concerned that I’m not getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night. I know it’s not as simplistic as the quantity, for I need to consider quality as well. Whether I am knocked out during the REM cycle. But I am of the opinion that I must first have quantity before I can talk about whether I am getting quality sleep. Anyway I usually get 6-6.5 hours of sleep, so lying in on weekends is my way of catching up on my sleep debt.

Some of my friends’ parents are suffering from dementia. I am concerned that my sleep patterns will cause harmful toxins to reside in my body and wreck havoc. I mean, I don’t worry obsessively about getting dementia, but it is at the back of my mind. And I think lack of quality sleep increases the likelihood of one getting cancer.

That’s why I think that all things being equal, the lack of sleep will be more detrimental to one’s health than the lack of exercise. Am I thinking the right way? I have been impressed with many of you who go into such detail in regard to taking care of your health. I’m sure someone has examined the science behind sleep 🛌 and exercise. 🏃‍♂️

Over to you.

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54 sats \ 0 replies \ @godlikeXi 14h

Sleep. Can't exercise if you're not well rested.

47 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 14h

I'm team sleep. Good sleep is towards the top of my healthy habits list. I don't willingly sacrifice my sleep for much.

36 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bit_Alb 11h

I'm team sleep too. I would never sacrifice the sleep for running. 😁

93 sats \ 2 replies \ @emm14 14h

lack of sleep is worse

three years ago I used to go to sleep at 3am every single night, which obviously affected me, in all aspects of my life

I currently go to sleep at 9pm and then wake up at 6am and it has truly been a life-changing thing

There are days when I don't do as much physical activity but sleeping well will always keep me satisfied and help me perform better

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei OP 14h

Woah from 3am to 9pm?

What caused such a drastic change, and where did you draw your willpower from?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @emm14 14h

I know, it's crazy

When I started to implement the habit of sleeping better I never saw it as something I would do for my benefit in the future, but by then my routine had changed a lot and I really needed those sleep hours

Things like working out and going to college required at least 7-8 hours of sleep and they take a lot of energy from me. When I started sleeping better, my performance improved a lot

I really don't know where I got so much willpower to achieve that, I guess discipline and the fact that I like to successfully achieve my goals helped a lot in that

8 sats \ 0 replies \ @NovaRift 14h

Probably sleep. But combining it with regular exercise makes it even better.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @jamalderrick 4h

I believe both adequate sleep (7+ hours) and regular exercise (150+ minutes weekly) are crucial for health, but the science suggests sleep might be even more fundamental. Sleep plays a vital role in preventing dementia by clearing brain plaque, and it's also essential for overall disease prevention. While diet and exercise are important pillars of health, quality sleep appears to be the foundation that makes everything else possible.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @denlillaapan 7h

Very much the same.

Never sac sleep.

I have no way or insight into how one determines the various contributions but my gut tells me sleep>almost everything else

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @IamSINGLE 9h

Easy answer: Lack of sleep.

It's simple. Just don't sleep a night and you'll most probably leave your exercise schedule. You'll be feeling nothing except laziness.

People who sleep less, don't do any exercise.

Without enough sleep, people tend to overeat and choose unhealthy foods. Sleep deprivation affects the body’s release of ghrelin and leptin, two neurotransmitters that tell the brain when to consume calories. People who are sleep deprived are more drawn toward high-calorie foods. Chronic sleep loss has been linked to having a larger waist circumference, and an increased risk of obesity.

Ultimately they can't do exercise.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SatsMate 10h

I've noticed if I get less than 6-7 hours of sleep, my recovery time almost doubles. Garmin does a really good job of tracking light sleep, deep, REM, etc. I think lack of sleep is the worst thing one can do, I recommend getting a sleep tracker or a garmin if you want to track this stuff in detail

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @User21000000 fwd 10h

The answer I think is both are very important to long healthy life. I think you said you go to bed at 10 or so could you go to bed the half hour early to make up for the earlier wake up?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nym 12h

Sleep for sure

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 12h

Lack of sleep is the correct answer

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @JesseJames 12h

sleep, hands down. Need to take care of that first

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 12h

Its easy to lack motivation when you dont have enough sleep. And that can effect the day in other ways, not just exercise.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Milkman9000 13h

Imo sleep is by far the most important

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @realBitcoinDog 13h

Lack of sleep worse

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitcoinIsTheFuture 13h

I just posted on your running post. Great questions. Don’t skip on the sleep, but analyze that 168 hours a week. Have you ever charter it out to look for waste?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @af1f6f3e17 13h

Sleep in the short term, exercise in the long term

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stack_harder 13h

i think, all things considered, sleep is more important because everything goes wrong when your body and brain aren't getting enough sleep

plus, when you are tired, your ghrelin (hunger) receptors are overactive, and willpower and patience less.

also, yes, when you're not getting enough sleep, your glymphatic system isn't able to fully flush out your brain https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301008220301726

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 13h

I think you can go a couple days without sleep but poor sleep long term is worse.

You can be pretty healthy without purposefully exercising if you have a good diet and a relatively active day to day lifestyle.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @random_ 13h

Interesting question.

Imagine how much better you'll sleep if you're exhausted AND you know you did something productive.

The alternative is a guilt ridden, maybe 2 hour longer, sleep.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Shugard 13h

I'm more concerned about not getting 7-8 hours of sleep every night.

Yeah, you should work on that first! Sleep is everything! It's what restores your body, rebuilds your cells, and prosseses your thoughts and knowledge in your brain!

Failing to get a good night's sleep will hurt you much more than skipping a few workouts here and there.

Both are incredibly important! Exercise is easily a 9/10 you should care about, but sleep is arguably a 12/10.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Akg10s3 13h

I like exercise and especially running, but lately my left knee has been bad because of a varicose vein that I have to have surgery on... But that's another thing...

What I mean is that my 2-year-old daughter doesn't let me go to bed early, she wants to play and play with kids after all...

I always go to sleep at 11 at night, almost at midnight, and I have to be awake before 5am... to start my sales day... And I'm worried that when I set my alarm on my phone it always tells me that I only sleep 5 hours...

Lately I've opted to just go to the gym and I feel great 👌

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 14h

I put all things that might be impacting our health in a poll last day here #846592 And it wasn't surprising that there was good talk around sleep.

I'd rather have more open answer to it. Yes, sleeping less causes havoc, I agree but there's nothing much have been explored about the benefits of sleeping more than required.

Another point that I've noted is sleep patterns may differ for people, from body to body. A man may be sleeping 5-6 hours and be healthy, fit and fine. While other can be sleeping nine hours, yet can be unhealthy. There are many other constraints that determine your health.

Enough sleep is definitely not enough if you don't do it in one stretch and complete REM cycle in it.