Most of us have a mental list of ways we should be moving more—more steps, more strength training, more consistency. And usually, the solution we reach for looks the same: a better plan, more motivation, maybe a stronger cup of coffee.
But what if the biggest influence on how much you move each day has nothing to do with workouts at all?
New research1 suggests that the forces shaping our daily activity levels may start much earlier than we think—before calendars fill up, before step counts are checked, before the day even begins. Instead of focusing on what pushes us to move, scientists are taking a closer look at what quietly sets the stage for movement in the first place.
To explore that question, researchers analyzed more than 28 million days of real-world data, tracking how people sleep and how they move across time, what they uncovered challenges some of our most common assumptions about motivation, discipline, and what it really takes to be an active person.
Inside the study
The study, published in Communications Medicine1, followed ~71,000 adults across 244 regions worldwide. Participants used two consumer devices: a wrist-worn activity tracker to measure daily steps and an under-mattress sensor to track sleep duration, efficiency, and how long it took to fall asleep.
Rather than relying on self-reported habits, researchers analyzed nearly 28 million days of data to understand how sleep and physical activity interact in everyday life.
They focused on two widely used benchmarks:
7–9 hours of sleep per night
8,000 or more steps per day (or 6,000 for older adults)
Here’s what they found.
Most people aren’t meeting either target. Let alone both
Only 12.9% of participants consistently hit both sleep and activity recommendations.
Even more concerning, nearly 17% of people slept fewer than seven hours and walked fewer than 5,000 steps a day, a combination associated with a higher risk of chronic disease, weight gain, and mental health challenges.
But the most important insight wasn’t just how few people met the guidelines. It was why.
Sleep drives movement—not the other way around
When researchers examined day-to-day patterns, a clear trend emerged. Better sleep led to more movement the next day.
People with higher sleep efficiency walked about 280 more steps the following day, even after accounting for age and lifestyle factors.
More sleep didn’t automatically mean more movement. Instead, daily steps followed a curved pattern, with activity levels highest after roughly 6–7 hours of sleep and lower on days following either very short or very long nights.
Crucially, moving more did not meaningfully improve sleep that night.
In other words, sleep acted like a performance enhancer for daily activity, while physical activity had only a small effect on sleep quality.
Sleep makes movement easier
This isn’t about laziness or lack of discipline. Poor sleep directly affects the systems that make movement possible.
Short or fragmented sleep increases fatigue, reduces motivation, impairs coordination, and disrupts hormones involved in energy regulation. When sleep quality improves, people don’t necessarily try to move more—they simply feel more capable of doing so.
The researchers describe sleep as a foundational behavior, one that sets the stage for everything that follows in the day.
How to use this research in real life
If your goal is to be more active, this study suggests a counterintuitive strategy. Stop chasing movement first.
Reduce evening behaviors that fragment sleep (late-night scrolling, alcohol, irregular schedules)
Treat sleep as part of your fitness routine, not a reward for completing it
Even small improvements in sleep efficiency can translate into meaningful increases in daily movement over time.
The takeaway
This research flips the script on how we think about activity. If we want people to walk more, lift more, and move more consistently, the solution may not be stricter goals or tougher workouts.
It may be better sleep.
Not because sleep is “nice to have,” but because it determines how much energy, motivation, and physical capacity we bring into the next day. When sleep improves, movement often follows—naturally and sustainably.
Sometimes, the most effective way to move more… is simply to go to bed earlier.
