Trying to squeeze in a workout often feels like a race against the clock, especially when bedtime is looming. But will those late-night reps end up doing more harm than good? That’s what one recent analysis suggests, and you can read about it in: “WHOOP Links Evening Workouts to Sleep Disruption.” Researchers at WHOOP looked at more than 4 million recorded nights of sleep, and what they found was that intense evening workouts within four hours of bedtime could lead to falling asleep 36–80 minutes later and potentially cut your total sleep duration by up to 14%. Not only that, but those intense, late sessions were also linked to an elevated resting heart rate and significantly reduced heart rate variability (HRV) – key markers of recovery. Before you rule out all evening movement, however, it might be a question of intensity rather than timing alone. Digging through this sleep & fitness blog post from our partners at Lagoon Sleep, we found mention of a different study. This research reported that interrupting the four hours before bed every 30 minutes with short bouts of exercise could actually improve total sleep time. This suggests that while you might want to avoid crushing a HIIT session right before winding down, lighter activity could potentially be neutral or even beneficial for your sleep. As always, listening to your own body’s response is key, but it seems dialing down the intensity might be the ticket if you’re exercising in the evening hours.

#Intenszzzity