Swap 30 minutes of sitting for light activity to improve your mood the next day

Summary: New research reveals that replacing even 30 minutes of sitting with light physical activity, such as walking or doing housework, can improve mood and energy the next day. The study followed more than 350 young adults who used wearable monitors to assess daily movement patterns.

Light activity showed the strongest link with better feelings the next day, outperforming both moderate exercise and prolonged sitting. Researchers say small, consistent changes to daily routines (not intense workouts) may offer the greatest emotional benefits.

Key facts:

Improved mood: Light activity was most strongly linked to better mood and energy the next day. Small changes matter: Even 30 minutes less sitting per day produced significant benefits. Daily movement helps: Walking, doing housework or moving gently offered more benefits than vigorous exercise.

Source: UT Arlington

Do you feel slow?

A new study from the University of Texas at Arlington finds that the solution may be as simple as swapping 30 minutes of sitting for light activity.

UT Arlington kinesiology professor Yue Liao joined a research team from Monash University in Australia to track more than 350 young adults using wearable activity monitors.

The study found that on days when participants did light activities, such as walking or doing housework, instead of sitting, they felt better and more energetic the next day.

“This study indicated that light activity (where you don’t need to go to the gym or do intense exercise) can lead to better feelings the next day when it replaces sedentary behavior,” Dr. Liao said.

“You don’t have to think, ‘I have to run,’ or ‘I have to do important things.’ Simply sitting less and moving more can have an immediate impact on your mood the next day.”

This finding is particularly relevant given current habits. A January 2024 study by smart seating company Kalogon found that 38% of American adults sit nine or more hours a day. Replacing even a portion of that time with light activity can give significant results.

The research, recently published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise, found that light activity had the strongest link to improving mood and energy the next day.

Moderate to vigorous exercise, such as running or working out at the gym, was associated with modest mood benefits, while sedentary time (sitting or awake) was associated with worse mood the next day. The study also examined sleep duration, but found no clear effect on next-day mood among the young adults studied.

“We looked at movement behavior over 24 hours: sleep, exercise, sedentary time and light activity,” Liao said.

“The 24-hour part is unique because we’re not just saying, ‘Do more of this.’ They all add up to 24 hours. From that perspective, if a person does more light activity instead of sedentary behavior, that predicts better mood the next day. That’s the key point.”

Liao also emphasized that the mood benefits were not due to comparing one’s activity level with that of others. Instead, the improvements came from a “within-person” effect: making subtle, self-directed changes in daily activity.

Ultimately, Liao hopes the study will show that making small changes to your usual routine is key to better overall health.

“Based on previous literature, we assumed that exercise would be the clear factor, but our analysis mainly highlighted light activity,” he said. “You don’t have to sweat a lot to get benefits. Just moving a little more than usual helps.”

Key questions answered:

About this exercise and mood research news

Author: Drew Davison
Source: UT Arlington
Contact: Drew Davison – UT Arlington
Image: Image is credited to Neuroscience News.

Original research: Open access.
“Prospective daily associations of sleep, physical activity, and sedentary behavior with affect: a multilevel Bayesian compositional data analysis” by Yue Liao et al. Psychology of Sports and Exercise

Abstract

Daily and prospective associations of sleep, physical activity, and sedentary behavior with affect: A multilevel Bayesian compositional data analysis.

Background

24-h behaviors (sleep, awake time in bed, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), light physical activity (LPA), and sedentary behavior (SB)) may influence long-term mental health through their associations with affective experiences in everyday life. Here, we investigated prospective daily associations between 24-h behaviors and affect.

Methods

24-h behaviors measured with actigraphy and self-reported affect data were collected for 7 to 15 consecutive days in healthy community-dwelling adults (N = 354, age = 22.61 years, 73% female), providing 2872 days of data. Multilevel Bayesian compositional data analysis assessed how time reallocation between behaviors was associated with next-day affect at the between- and within-person level.

Results

Associations between 24-hour behaviors and next-day affect emerged within-person, not between-person. Relative to the remaining behaviors, more LPA predicted 0.14 (95% CI: 0.03, 0.26) greater high-arousal positive affect, while less SB predicted less high- and low-arousal positive affect (−0.14 (-0.25, −0.02) and −0.12 (-0.24, −0.01), respectively) greater high-arousal negative affect. (0.13 (0.03, 0.23)).

Furthermore, 30-min intrapersonal reallocation to LPA from SB, sleep, and awake time in bed also predicted ≥0.03 (0.00, 0.06) greater high-arousal positive affect. Time reallocation of 30 minutes to LPA and MVPA from SB predicted 0.04 (0.01, 0.06) greater high-arousal positive affect and −0.02 (-0.04, −0.00) lower low-arousal negative affect.

Conclusion

The findings provide preliminary evidence to identify optimal daily compositions of 24-hour behaviors for affective improvements in healthy individuals. Replacing time in SB with LPA and MVPA to improve affect should be tested experimentally in daily settings and clinical populations, to inform diagnostic and intervention strategies to improve daily affect and mental health.