Sedentary Behaviour for Adults
Sedentary behaviours involve very little physical movement while awake. This includes time sitting or lying down, such as while watching television, using phones or tablets, playing electronic games, using a computer at home or at work, traveling, or operating equipment or machinery.
Spending long periods of time sedentary can increase your risk for chronic diseases (such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers) and mortality, even if you are physically active.
Sit less and stand up for better health.
What are the recommendations for sedentary time for adults?
The 24-hour movement guidelines for adults recommend limiting sedentary time to 8 hours or less with no more than 3 hours of recreational screen time (i.e., screen time outside of school or work activities) per day. The guidelines also recommend that adults break up or minimize long periods of sitting or lying down as often as possible.
Being less sedentary can help adults:
- maintain a healthy body weight
- lower cholesterol
- lower blood pressure
- lower risk of developing chronic diseases
- lower risk of developing certain types of cancer
Tips to help you reduce your screen time
Screen time, whether watching a TV, using a computer, a tablet or smart phone is having a significant impact on the health of Canadians. Changing viewing habits can be a good way to decrease sedentary behaviour. Tips to reduce your screen time include:
- Avoiding uninterrupted "binge" style screen viewing.
- Being mindful about your use of screen time and developing a plan for screen use to help you and your family limit screen time.
- Keeping bedrooms screen free.
- Keeping meal and snack times screen free.
Tips to help you sit less:
- Set timers or use an app to remind you to stand or move.
- Take frequent breaks to stand or move.
- Plan breaks for longer car trips to get out of the car, stand, stretch, and move.
- Walk, bike, or take public transit to school, work and other nearby destinations. If you already take public transit, try getting off a stop or two early to extend your walk.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator.
- Reorganize your workspace to allow work from a standing position.
- Next time you have a meeting, propose a standing or walking meeting.
- Be active as a family (e.g., cook together, go for a walk, or play at a local park).
The whole day matters
Reducing sedentary behaviour is important, but it is also only one aspect of your day. It is also important to move more by incorporating light, moderate, or vigorous physical activity into your day, and to make sure you are getting enough, good quality sleep. When we sit less and move more throughout the day, we use more energy, allowing us to fall asleep easier at bedtime and have a more restful sleep. Similarly, the more rested we feel from a good night’s sleep, the more energy we will have to sit less and move more the next day!
DID YOU KNOW research has found that replacing time spent in sedentary behaviour with sleep (while staying within the sleep guidelines for your age group) is associated with improvements in all-cause mortality.
Resources:
Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines for adults (18 to 64 years of age)
Canadian 24-hour movement guidelines for adults (65 years of age and older)
Let's make our day harder (video) - Dr. Mike Evans