Top Line: Understanding how exercise timing influences sleep can empower individuals to optimize their daily routines, enhance their sleep experience, and promote overall well-being.
Key Takeaways:
- High-intensity exercise should be completed at least four hours before bed to avoid sleep disruption.
- Moderate-intensity exercise can be performed closer to bedtime.
- Exercising with daylight exposure can further benefit sleep quality.
Exercise Timing and Sleep Quality: High-intensity exercise less than four hours before bed delays sleep onset and reduces sleep quality due to increased sympathetic activity and physiological arousal. The body's response to exercise includes increased heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and stress hormone release, which can all interfere with sleep [1] [2] [3].
Intensity of Exercise: The intensity of your exercise plays a crucial role in how it affects your sleep. While high-intensity workouts benefit overall health and fitness, they can be more disruptive to sleep patterns than moderate or low-intensity exercise. This is especially true when performed close to bedtime, as the body remains in a heightened state of arousal, making it difficult to fall asleep quickly.
On the other hand, moderate-intensity exercise, even when done in the evening (completed at least 90 minutes before sleep), has been shown to improve various sleep parameters. It can lead to better sleep quality, increased sleep duration, and reduced sleep onset latency (the time it takes to fall asleep). This is likely due to a combination of factors, including the release of endorphins during exercise, which can promote relaxation and reduce stress, as well as the regulation of body temperature, which is essential for sleep initiation.
Therefore, while high-intensity exercise should ideally be avoided close to bedtime, moderate-intensity exercise can be incorporated into your evening routine without negatively impacting your sleep. It may even enhance your sleep quality and overall well-being [3] [4] [5] [6] [7].
Below is a table showing some examples of high-intensity versus moderate-intensity exercise and the heart rate percentage ranges that define each.
Moderate-Intensity Exercise | High-Intensity Exercise |
|---|---|
50-70% of maximum heart rate | 70-95% of maximum heart rate |
Brisk walking | Sprinting |
Slow Run or Bike | Cycling uphill |
Light Swimming | HIIT (high-intensity interval training) |
Resistance Training | Crossfit |
Zone 2 Training | Sports (basketball, hockey, etc.) |
Daylight Exposure: Exposure to daylight during exercise, even if it takes place several hours before bedtime - for example, in the late afternoon or early evening - can positively impact sleep quality and overall energy levels. This suggests incorporating outdoor physical activity into your daily routine, regardless of the specific timing, can effectively improve sleep and combat fatigue [2].
Conclusion:
High-intensity workouts should be finished at least four hours before bed for optimal sleep. Moderate-intensity exercise is less likely to disrupt sleep and can be done closer to bedtime. Adjusting exercise timing and intensity can improve sleep quality and overall well-being.
References
1. Leota, J., Presby, D., Czeisler, M., Mascaro, L., Capodilupo, E., Drummond, S., Rajaratnam, S., & Facer-Childs, E. O002 High strain evening exercise disrupts sleep: Insights from a real-world examination of ~7-million nights. Sleep Advances: A Journal of the Sleep Research Society. 2023; 4. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleepadvances/zpad035.002
2. Chen, H., Cheung, D., Lin, Y., Wu, Y., Liu, C., Lin, K., Lin, Y., & Lin, C. Relationships of exercise timing with sleep, fatigue and rest-activity rhythms of lung cancer patients in Taiwan: An exploratory study. European journal of cancer care. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecc.13233
3. Frimpong, E., Mograss, M., Zvionow, T., & Thien, D. The effects of evening high-intensity exercise on sleep in healthy adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.. Sleep medicine reviews. 2021; 60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2021.101535
4. Stutz, J., Eiholzer, R., & Spengler, C. Effects of Evening Exercise on Sleep in Healthy Participants: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Medicine. 2018; 49. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-018-1015-0
5. Yue, T., Liu, X., Gao, Q., & Wang, Y. Different Intensities of Evening Exercise on Sleep in Healthy Adults: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis. Nature and Science of Sleep. 2022; 14. https://doi.org/10.2147/NSS.S388863
6. Miller, D., Sargent, C., Roach, G., Scanlan, A., Vincent, G., & Lastella, M. Moderate-intensity exercise performed in the evening does not impair sleep in healthy males. European Journal of Sport Science. 2019; 20. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2019.1611934
7. Oda, S., & Shirakawa, K. Sleep onset is disrupted following pre-sleep exercise that causes large physiological excitement at bedtime. European Journal of Applied Physiology. 2014; 114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-014-2873-2
Jon Esposito, PhD, CSCS, USAW, CISSN
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