Afternoon May Be the Best Time to Exercise

Study shows improvements

New research suggests that exercising in the afternoon can improve your body's internal clock, allowing you to sleep better and avoid the physical ailments associated with aging. Christopher Colwell, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, said the body's internal clock can easily become confused—like when it views artificial light in the evening when it expects darkness—and gets worse when aging (when people often have trouble falling and staying asleep). An out-of-sync rhythm in people can lead to an increased risk for diabetes, obesity, certain types of cancer, memory loss and mood disorders, including depression, so Cowell wanted to determine if exercise might “fix” a broken clock. Testing mice, Cowell found that those who ran later in the day produced more clock proteins and pumped the protein more efficiently to the rest of the body than those who ran earlier. Late-night exercise, meanwhile, is probably inadvisable, he said. (NY Times)

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