Hi there,
I’ve been banging on about this at work for months.
I’ve shown my co-workers the studies. I’ve done the full enthusiastic professor routine to people who were trying to eat their lunch.
Not one of them has taken it up.
Which is a fair summary of working in public health to be honest.
I’ll tell you why it’s the best thing I’ve done for my sleep and wellbeing
(and why you should do it too).
The thing I keep going on about is this: It’s a 1.72 kilometre loop from the office at Smales Farm, down towards Lake Pupuke and back up the hill.
BUT keep reading… I know that doesn’t sound that spectacular at all right?
The problem is that sitting at your desk looks like work, and walking out the door looks like skiving. Here’s why this is wrong…
The science behind walking after lunch
After you eat, glucose pours into your bloodstream. Sit still and the big muscles in your legs do nothing with it. Start walking and they start burning it.
In a New Zealand trial, adults with type 2 diabetes either walked 30 minutes once a day, or 10 minutes after each main meal. Same total walking time. The short walks after meals cut glucose exposure by 12% more overall, and 22% more after dinner.
So when you walk matters more than how long you walk for.
How’s this good for sleep? The never ending twilight.
It’s all about lux which is the measurement unit of light.
An office gives you about 500 lux. An overcast day outside, around 10,000. Bright sun, over 100,000. We spend most of our time… ahh yes indoors, at about 500 lux.
Because our brain runs a clock that needs strong signals about what time it is, we live in this permanent ‘twilight’ of low lux.
What a weird environment we have engineered.
One study found office workers with windows got 173% more light during the day, and slept 46 minutes longer. I reckon my walk beats the window.
We know this and still don’t do it
Everyone knows walking is good for them. Information is not always what’s missing.
We’ve built workplaces where eating lunch over your keyboard signals commitment, even when the following hour is foggy and pretending to concentrate.
Go for a 10 minute walk after you eat today.
Worst case is you feel the weather and remember there’s a world past the screen.
– Grant
References
- Reynolds AN, Mann JI, Williams S, Venn BJ. Diabetologia. 2016;59:2572-2578.
- Boubekri M, Cheung IN, Reid KJ, Wang CH, Zee PC. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. 2014;10:603-611.
