Testing the sleep hygiene recommendation against nighttime exercise

Youngstedt, Shawn D.; Ito, Wakako; Passos, Giselle Soares; Santana, Marcos Gonçalves de; Youngstedt, Julia M.

doi:10.1007/s11325-020-02284-x

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Second, in contrast to the theoretical notion of evening PA hindering sleep by causing excessive arousal, PA has been shown to have a regulating, anxiolytic effect, particularly in the 1–2 h after exercising ( 33 ), which may promote sleep. Finally, evening exercise may strengthen beneficial sleep associations, by contrasting higher activity levels outside the bed with restful inactivity within the bed, in line with the classical conditioning rationale ( 34 ). These mechanistic processes may promote longer sleep duration largely by decreasing SOL at the start of the night, thus allowing more time for sleep.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Is It Time We Stop Discouraging Evening Physical Activity? New Real-World Evidence From 150,000 Nights

Kahn

Korhonen

Leinonen

et al. 2021

Front. Public Health

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Professional and colloquial sleep hygiene guidelines advise against evening physical activity, despite meta-analyses of laboratory studies concluding that evening exercise does not impair sleep. This study is the first to investigate the association between objectively measured evening physical activity and sleep within a real-world big-data sample. A total of 153,154 nights from 12,638 individuals aged 18–60 years (M = 40.1 SD = 10.1; 44.5% female) were analyzed. Nighttime sleep and minutes of physical activity were assessed using Polar wearable devices for 14 consecutive days. Thirty minutes or more of moderate-to-near maximal physical activity during the 3 h before sleep onset were recorded in 12.4% of evenings, and were more frequent on weekdays than weekends (13.3 vs. 10.2% respectively, p < 0.001). Linear mixed modeling revealed that sleep efficiency was not significantly associated with evening physical activity, and that sleep duration was 3.4 min longer on average on nights following evenings in which participants engaged in 30 min or more of moderate-intense physical activity. Effects were found for sleep timing metrics, as evening physical activity was linked with earlier sleep onset and offset times (−13.7 and −9.3 min, respectively). Overall, these effects were greater– but still very small– on weekdays compared to weekends. The present study provides further evidence for the lack of meaningful links between sleep duration or quality and physical activity in the hours preceding sleep. Taken together with recent meta-analytic findings, these findings suggest that changes in public health recommendations are warranted regarding evening physical activity and its relation to sleep.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Is It Time We Stop Discouraging Evening Physical Activity? New Real-World Evidence From 150,000 Nights

Kahn

Korhonen

Leinonen

et al. 2021

Front. Public Health

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“…Meta-analyses in healthy populations of all ages have also consistently confirmed that exercise after 02:00 pm either has no effect or even improves sleep [ 23 , 76 , 88 ]. Trials focusing on patients with insomnia have found similar results, although there are far fewer trials available [ 67 , 70–73 ]. This is relevant to therapeutic settings where exercise interventions are commonly also implemented after 02:00 pm.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…While two trials [ 70 , 71 ] found no effect of exercise on sleep, three trials found some positive effects on objectively measured sleep [ 67 , 72 , 73 ]. The first trial found beneficial effects on sleep onset latency, total sleep time, and sleep efficiency [ 67 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The acute effects of aerobic exercise on sleep in patients with unipolar depression: a randomized controlled trial

Brupbacher

Zander-Schellenberg

Straus

et al. 2021

Sleep

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Study objectives Insomnia increases the risk of negative disease trajectory, relapse, and suicide in patients with depression. We aimed at investigating the effects of a single bout of aerobic exercise, performed after 2 pm, on the subsequent night's sleep in patients with depression. Methods The study was designed as a two-arm parallel-group, randomized, outcome assessor-blinded, controlled, superiority trial. Patients between 18 and 65 years of age with a primary diagnosis of unipolar depression were included. The intervention was a single 30-minute bout of moderate aerobic exercise. The control group sat and read for 30 minutes. The primary outcome was sleep efficiency measured by polysomnography. Secondary outcomes were other polysomnographic variables, subjective sleep quality, daytime sleepiness, mood states, and adverse events. Results 92 patients were randomized to the exercise (N = 46) or control group (N = 46). There were no clinically relevant differences at baseline. Intent-to-treat analysis ANCOVA of follow-up sleep efficiency, adjusted for baseline levels and minimization factors, did not detect a significant effect of the allocation (β = -0.93, p = 0.59). There was no evidence for significant differences between both groups in any other objective or subjective sleep outcomes, daytime sleepiness, or adverse events. The intervention had an immediate positive effect on mood states, including depressiveness (β= -0.40, p = 0.003). Conclusions This is the first trial to study the effects of a single bout of aerobic exercise on sleep in patients with depression to the best of our knowledge. Aerobic exercise had no effect on sleep efficiency but had a strong beneficial effect on mood and did not increase adverse outcomes. These results add to the growing body of evidence that, contrary to sleep hygiene recommendations, exercise after 2 pm is not detrimental for sleep.

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“…Nighttime athletic competition has resulted in disturbed sleep in some studies ( Nédélec et al, 2019 ), but competition is associated with a far higher level of psychophysiological arousal than workouts. The available evidence indicates that even vigorous evening exercise ending 2-4 before bedtime does not disturb sleep for most individuals ( Youngstedt et al, 1999 ; Buman et al, 2014 ; Vitale et al, 2017 ; Frimpong et al, 2001 ; Youngstedt et al, 2021 ), and with experience, it is possible that the minority of individuals with disturbed sleep after evening exercise can adapt to evening exercise without experiencing disturbed sleep.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delaying early morning workouts to protect sleep in two-a-day athletes

Youngstedt

2024

Front. Physiol.

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Two-a-day training is common for endurance athletes with training sessions typically beginning at 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. However, the early morning workouts could contribute to significant sleep loss, especially for night owls. Chronic sleep loss over a season could result in impaired performance, as well as an increased risk of physical and mental illness. It is hypothesized that shifting the early morning workout to later in the day could have beneficial effects for these athletes. A number of obstacles could make this hypothesis difficulty to test and implement. However, such a change could have dramatic benefits for some athletes.

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Testing the sleep hygiene recommendation against nighttime exercise

Cited by 11 publications

References 26 publications

Is It Time We Stop Discouraging Evening Physical Activity? New Real-World Evidence From 150,000 Nights

Is It Time We Stop Discouraging Evening Physical Activity? New Real-World Evidence From 150,000 Nights

The acute effects of aerobic exercise on sleep in patients with unipolar depression: a randomized controlled trial

Delaying early morning workouts to protect sleep in two-a-day athletes

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