A little pep in your step could be a sign that you’re going to sleep better at night, according to investigation from George Mason University.
By placing motion sensors on a group of young adults, researchers found that people who moved their hips more when walking, slouched more, and took irregularly synchronized steps, similar to a drunk, were more likely to sleep poorly.
These metrics are also signs that the walkers were more likely to get hurt.
The researchers identified this using motion detection technology and artificial intelligence to determine the difference between the two groups.
But you can probably see these differences in real life, Joel Martin, a kinesiologist at George Mason University, who led the study, told WhatsNew2Day.com.
“Most people probably do this daily walk without thinking about it,” he said.
People who slept poorly tended to walk more irregularly and stooped compared to people who slept well.
When someone is sleep deprived, they tend to walk more “drunk”, for example.
The relationship between walking styles and sleep quality has been established in older people through multiple previous investigations.
A 2016 study from the University of Haifa in Israel showed that older people who sleep poorly tend to walk slower, with more asymmetrical patterns and, as a result, are more likely to suffer falls.
A 2020 study by psychologists from Louisiana State University He found that older people who slept worse had irregular walking patterns.
But this is one of few studies observing this link in young adults. A previous study A study by psychologists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences found a similar, but more dramatic, link between students’ walking styles and sleep qualities, Martin said.
In Mr. Martin’s study, there were “really subtle changes” between the two groups that could probably only be seen through computer analysis.
The new study has identified nuanced differences in gait patterns that are related to sleep quality, but can only be detected with a computer program.
The study, which examined 123 people aged 24, on average, found that 59 percent slept well while 41 percent slept poorly.
After probing the participants’ sleeping habits, the researchers sent them on a two-minute walk around an oval track with motion sensors attached to their bodies.
They fed the gait data through an AI learning algorithm that was trained to identify 100 different gait characteristics, such as hip and spine position and width between the feet.
The AI ​​detected a difference in walking patterns from the moment the participants took their first step.
Poor sleepers had less rotation of the lower spine, which Martin said appears to be hunched over. Additionally, while walking around the curve of the track, poor sleepers tended to have more changes in the angle of pelvic tilt, meaning their hips moved more.
Finally, poor sleepers had trouble maintaining a constant walking speed and the distance between their feet changed frequently.
These findings also suggest that people who sleep worse have a higher risk of suffering from it hurts when walkingsaid Mr. Martin.
To determine changes in gait between the two groups, the researchers sent the participants to walk around an oval track.
«People who sleep poorly may show very subtle changes in gait normally associated with difficulty in initiating and maintaining walking speed. In particular, these gait patterns are similar to those of people who are at higher risk for lower extremity injuries or who walk more slowly,” the researchers wrote in the article published in the journal sleep science magazine.
Martin said this study would have been more accurate if they could have kept the participants overnight.
But that raises ethical questions, since depriving people of sleep is dangerous, so scientists are sticking to more observational methods like this, he said.
These studies may help develop technology that can “identify whether someone is fatigued or not, especially in some occupations or sports, where people could be at higher risk of injury if they are in some type of fatigue or sleep-deprived state.” “.