The research behind RestLess

RestLess is built on one idea from sedentary-behaviour research: long, unbroken stretches of sitting carry a risk of their own, and short bursts of movement that actually raise your heart rate help break them up. Here are the main studies behind that idea, in plain English, with links to the originals.

Breaking up sitting

Two minutes of walking every 20 minutes

Adults who got up for two minutes of light walking every 20 minutes had noticeably lower blood sugar and insulin after a meal than when they sat without a break. This is the study behind RestLess's short, regular nudges. It was a small, controlled trial of 19 overweight adults aged 45–65.

Dunstan et al. (2012). Breaking up prolonged sitting reduces postprandial glucose and insulin responses. Diabetes Care 35(5):976–83. doi:10.2337/dc11-1931

Standing up isn't enough on its own

A follow-up study compared two-minute standing breaks with two-minute walking breaks. Only the walking breaks lowered blood sugar after a meal. Standing breaks did no better than uninterrupted sitting. That's why RestLess looks for a rise in heart rate, not just a change of position.

Bailey & Locke (2015). Breaking up prolonged sitting with light-intensity walking improves postprandial glycemia, but breaking up sitting with standing does not. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport 18(3):294–8. doi:10.1016/j.jsams.2014.03.008

Why a workout doesn't cancel it out

"Exercise resistance"

After four days of sitting about 13.5 hours a day, an hour of vigorous exercise didn't improve the volunteers' fat, sugar or insulin response the next morning. Long periods of inactivity seemed to blunt the usual benefits of a workout. It was a small study of 10 adults.

Akins et al. (2019). Inactivity induces resistance to the metabolic benefits following acute exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology 126(4):1088–94. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00968.2018

How much activity it takes to offset a lot of sitting

A large analysis of more than a million people found that the extra risk linked to sitting for 8+ hours a day largely disappeared in people who also did about 60–75 minutes of moderate activity every day. That's a lot more than most of us manage, which is where frequent small breaks come in.

Ekelund et al. (2016). Does physical activity attenuate, or even eliminate, the detrimental association of sitting time with mortality? The Lancet 388(10051):1302–10. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(16)30370-1

Moving less after a hard session

After a single hard exercise session, people tend to move a bit less in the days that follow without noticing. Some of the extra energy they used is cancelled out. The study we cite was small (24 overweight boys aged 11–13), so take it as a tendency rather than a rule. Still, the quiet hours after a big effort are exactly when a nudge can help.

Paravidino et al. (2016). Effect of exercise intensity on spontaneous physical activity energy expenditure in overweight boys: a crossover study. PLoS ONE 11(1):e0147141. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0147141

Every bit counts

Short bursts in everyday life

In more than 25,000 people who didn't exercise, three short bursts of vigorous everyday activity a day (1–2 minutes each, like hurrying for a bus or taking the stairs fast) were linked to a substantially lower risk of death over about seven years. This was an observational study, so it shows a link rather than proof of cause. It's encouraging all the same.

Stamatakis et al. (2022). Association of wearable device-measured vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity with mortality. Nature Medicine 28(12):2521–9. doi:10.1038/s41591-022-02100-x

Fidgeting and everyday movement

Researchers tracked posture and movement every half-second for 10 days. People with obesity sat for about 2 hours a day longer than lean people. The researchers estimated that adopting the leaner group's everyday movement habits could use around 350 extra calories a day, with no formal exercise at all.

Levine et al. (2005). Interindividual variation in posture allocation: possible role in human obesity. Science 307(5709):584–6. doi:10.1126/science.1106561

A note on what RestLess is

RestLess is a wellbeing reminder, not a medical device. It doesn't diagnose, treat or prevent any condition. The studies above are about breaking up sitting in general. They didn't test RestLess itself. If you have a health condition, talk to your doctor before changing how active you are.