I consider myself a pretty fit and healthy person. I do 25-minute HIIT workouts six days a week, I try to avoid ultra-processed foods and I make my own kefir and kombucha. But there’s one area of wellness I, like a lot of people, struggle with, and that’s sleep.
Even if I feel tired in the evening, all too often when I get into bed and turn off the light my mind starts whirring with anxious thoughts and I can’t drift off. I end up turning the light back on and reading until my eyelids start to droop, so I struggle to get the seven hours of shut-eye I need to feel refreshed the next day.
So when a fitness routine promising to help me sleep better cropped up on my news app feed from an Indian media site in November (the algorithm clearly knows I’m a fitness junkie), I was keen to give it a go.
The 6-6-6 walking routine, the article explained, involves a one-hour walk every day at either 6am or 6pm. You start with a six-minute warm-up (walking at your normal speed), increase to a brisk pace for the remaining 54 minutes, then follow the walk with six minutes of stretching.
Intended to help you incorporate an hour of low-impact movement into your day, with the warm-up and cool-down sessions included to reduce the risk of injury, the walks are timed to invigorate you in the morning and help you wind down at night.
As a 40-year-old freelance journalist juggling lots of deadlines, I spend most of the day typing away on my laptop. I try to always go out at lunchtime for a walk, but I rarely hit the recommended 10k steps on a weekday, so doing longer daily walks was also appealing.
I decided to alternate between morning and evening walks for two weeks to see if the 6-6-6 approach to exercise could help me get more exercise and sleep.
Katie alternated between morning and evening walks (Photo: Supplied)Before starting, I asked a range of health and fitness experts for their thoughts on the 6-6-6 walking routine, and they all agreed it’s an effective way to reap the benefits of daily exercise.
“Walking is an excellent cardiovascular exercise and can be hugely beneficial to many aspects of both physical and mental health,” says Dr Jane Glazebrook from The Slimming Clinic, who is also a personal trainer.
“Research suggests that walking may help improve your cholesterol profile, help control hypertension, and slow the process of osteoporosis. It’s also believed that walking can help to ‘reduce sleep disturbance,’ meaning that people who walk regularly are more likely to sleep better.”
Dr Chelsea Perry, founder of Sleep Solutions, praised the 6-6-6 walking routine for offering “a simple, low-tech and cost-free approach to improving sleep quality. I fully agree that walking, especially brisk walking, can significantly enhance sleep.”
I asked sleep expert and author Charlie Morley how important it was to stick to the 6am and 6pm set-off times.
“The timings of the walk may actually be really beneficial, that’s because morning and evening exercise may be better for us, especially in the winter months,” Morley says. “Even on a cloudy day, there are more lux or lumens (how light is measured) outside than there are in an office with indoor lighting, so gaining exposure to outdoor light is still a good way for us to reset our circadian rhythm.”
The only problem is, this being bleak mid-winter, the sun is nowhere to be seen when I commence the 6-6-6 walking routine with a Sunday night walk. I easily complete a 60-minute city loop while listening to a podcast, finishing up with six minutes of simple stretches for my hamstrings, quads, glutes and calves.
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Read MoreIf you’re wondering whether the evening walk could have the opposite effect and actually exacerbate insomnia, Morley says: “A brisk walk early evening or even close to bedtime is unlikely to make a big difference as this isn’t considered to be ‘high intensity’.”
The next morning, I’m shocked when I wake up a full hour before my 5.30am alarm (maybe I was anxious about the impending pre-dawn walk?) and can’t get back to sleep. The sky is still pitch black when I’m heading out the door at 6am and there are hardly any cars, let alone people, on the streets during my riverside walk.
I thought I might be falling asleep by mid-morning after that painfully early start, but I don’t feel the urge to nap at all. By the end of the day, I feel nicely worn out (rather than the kind of exhaustion you get from a strenuous gym class, for example) and look forward to going to bed.
Luckily I don’t suffer any more unwanted 4.30am wake-up calls and I start to enjoy the 6am walks more than the 6pm ones. I feel pretty smug to have finished with my morning exertions by the time most people are just waking up, whereas the evening walks are more difficult to schedule around work and socialising.
I also miss the endorphins of my HIIT workouts, so I end up doing those on the mornings when I’ve got a 6pm walk scheduled, which Perry says is a good idea: “Adding other types of exercise is essential for a well-rounded fitness routine. Walking alone misses out on improving muscular strength, flexibility and core stability. I personally throw strength training with weights, HIIT, and pilates into the weekly mix to meet all facets of my fitness goals.”
As I enter into week two, I’m noticing a distinct difference in my sleep patterns. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out why, but on the days when I do a 6am walk I sleep better that night. I don’t think this is only because of the early start, but also because I have more energy in the mornings, so I walk faster, and in turn expend more energy.
I also feel like I get more endorphins from the morning walks so they put me in a better mood (except on occasional rainy days), whereas the 6pm walks often feel like an inconvenience instead of an enjoyable workout.
One other aspect I struggle with is the lack of sunlight on both the morning and evening walks. While getting my heart rate up is energising, I can’t help but wonder if I would be enjoying the challenge more if I was doing it in spring or summer.
“Early morning exercise without the sunrise light will still have benefits,” Morley tells me. “Your cortisol awakening response peaks within the first 30-45 minutes of waking up. So, if you were to have an early morning walk within the first hour or so of waking up it might be that your exercise is catching the uplift of your cortisol awakening response, leading to even more feelings of alertness and freshness.”
Overall, the 6-6-6 walking routine didn’t give me enough of a cardio workout compared to my usual high-impact sessions, but in terms of sleep the morning walks were fantastic for inducing what experts call ‘sleep pressure’ (that droopy-eyed feeling) at the end of the day.
Part of that must have been down to simply waking up earlier, but I know if I’d got up at 6am and sat down at my desk straight away I would’ve fallen right back to sleep, so the brisk walks achieved their goal of energising me in the morning.
Would I do it again? Yes, if I were struggling with particularly bad insomnia, but I would wait until the time of year when it’s light at 6am and I would concentrate on the morning walks as I found them the most beneficial for improving my sleep and mood, plus I wouldn’t be so strict about hitting the one-hour goal.
The 6-6-6 challenge has reminded me of one key wellbeing truth: even if you can’t manage an hour of pounding the pavements every day, going for a brisk walk, no matter what time you do it, is a great first step to better sleep.
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