Deep sleep (also known as slow-wave or N3 sleep) is one of four sleep stages we cycle through every night. It's where your body carries out repair work and produces high levels of growth hormone. Essentially, it's where a lot of 'the magic happens'. For most healthy adults, deep sleep should make up 10-20% of their overall nightly sleep.

According to my Apple Watch 12, deep sleep makes up around 23% of my nightly sleep on average, which is already in the upper tier. However, I'm still dealing with stress-fuelled 3 a.m. wake-ups, and because deep sleep is associated with a higher tolerance to stress, I've been wondering if more deep sleep is the answer to helping me sleep through the night.

To test this, I've adopted a new, simple 10-minute daily habit that science says can help you get more deep sleep. After just 6 days this habit has helped me go from 23% to 28% deep sleep (roughly an extra 38 minutes) a night.

The habit? Daily exercise. In fact, a study by the University of Texas indicates that getting as little as 10 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per day could help you get more deep sleep.

Here Dr. Jeffrey Durmer, a neuroscientist, neurologist, and sleep medicine physician explains how it works and why you should try it if you keep waking up through the night.

At first, I started a daily exercise regime by accident. Walking my son to school four times a week is a 30 minute leisurely round trip through a beautiful wooded valley, or a 15 minute white-knuckle cycle ride that leaves me gasping for air on the uphill leg.

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