THURSDAY, July 3, 2025 (HealthDay News) — The age-old “early to bed, early to rise” proverb applies to your daily exercise regimen as well as your health, wealth and wisdom, a new study says.

Folks who get to bed earlier tend to be more physically active every day, researchers reported June 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

On average, folks with a typical bedtime around 9 p.m. logged about 30 more minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day, compared to night owls up ’til 1 a.m., researchers found.

Even delaying sleep by a couple of hours can hamper the next day’s workout, results show.

Those hitting the hay at 9 p.m. recorded nearly 15 additional minutes of exercise compared to those who delayed their sleep until 11 p.m., researchers found.

“Sleep and physical activity are both critical to health, but until now we didn't fully grasp how intricately connected they are in everyday life,” senior investigator Elise Facer-Childs, a senior research fellow with the Monash University School of Psychological Sciences in Australia, said in a news release.

For the study, nearly 20,000 people wore a sleep-and-activity tracker on their wrist for a year. On average, the entire sample tended to nod off around 11 p.m.

Results show that sleeping less than usual and falling asleep earlier were both associated with increased physical activity, compared with sleeping longer or delaying sleep later in the evening.

These findings were further validated using Fitbit data from another study involving nearly 6,000 people, researchers added.

The results suggest that conventional work schedules can interfere with a person’s exercise regimen, says lead researcher Josh Leota, a research fellow in psychology at Monash University.

“Standard 9-to-5 routines can clash with the natural sleep preferences of evening types, leading to social jetlag, poorer sleep quality and increased daytime sleepiness – which can all reduce motivation and opportunity for physical activity the next day,” Leota said in a news release.

Importantly, the study also found that folks can successfully change up their routine.

When people went to sleep earlier than usual but still got their typical amount of sleep, they recorded the highest levels of physical activity the next day, the study says.

Leota said these insights hold meaningful implications for public health.

“Rather than just promoting sleep and physical activity independently, health campaigns could encourage earlier bedtimes to naturally foster more active lifestyles,” he said.

“A holistic approach that recognizes how these two essential behaviors interact may lead to better outcomes for individual and community health,” Leota concluded.

More information

West Virginia University has more on how sleep can affect an exercise routine.

SOURCE: Monash University, news release, June 30, 2025